Sotheby's held its Impressionists and Modern Painting sale last evening in New York. With a few exceptions at the very upper end of market, sales results continue to be disappointing. The Sotheb'y sale sold only 64% of its lots (70 lots crossed the podium with 20 being bought in), and gathered only $223.8 million against a low estimate total of $338 million. A Claude Monet, estimated at $16 million failed to sell.The three top sellers were Kasimir Malevich's 1916 Suprematist Composition, which sold for $60,002,500, Edvard Munch's Vampire sold for $38,162,500, Edgar Degas's Danseuse au repos (c. 1879) sold for $37,042,500. Doing the math, if 50 paintings sold, and three of those 50 brought in $135 million, or 57% of the total the remaining 47 pieces sold for a total of around $88 million. Word I am hearing is nearly 800 collectors attended the sale, but there was very little buz or excitement in the hall.
Christie's is holding its sale on Wed and Thursday. Many believe due to the slow sales at Sotheby's last evening, that Chrisite's will be negotiating with consignors to lower reserves.
ArtInfo is putting a mixed spin on the sale, stating The art world is clearly in a very different place from six months ago, when a 52-lot Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening sale earned $235.3 million and prompted buy-in rates of 21 percent by lot and 10 percent by value. But tonight’s result was hardly the financial bloodbath that some were predicting. The majority of lots sold well below the published pre-sale estimates, indicating that Sotheby’s was able to drive reserves down into acceptable and decidedly lower levels. And the house managed to sell all but four of the 16 guaranteed lots.
Perhaps it was not a blood bath or complete disaster, but I would think there was hope within the art world that the results would have been better. I will update again as more infomration is available and as the Christie's results are tallied.
No comments:
Post a Comment