The Parisian Auction Market

The Antiques Trade Gazette had a good article on the results of Parisian auction houses in 2009. As would be expected, the news is not terribly good, but on the positive side, the overall feel is confidence is returning and 2010 should show some signs of growth. The average loss in sales for the Parisian auction houses was estimated at 20%.

The ATG article states Christie's regained the title of the largest house in Paris with 455.2 million Euros in sales. That is a substantial factor of 3 above 2008, but it did include the YSL sale of, and if factored out Christie's would have had $112.8 million euros in sales. Without the YSL sale, sales at Christies would have declined by nearly 25%. But the sale was held and was a fantastic success, one of the few bright spots in the market during 2009.

Sotheby's had sales of 98 million euros, down 37% from 2008, followed by Artcurial with 88 million Euros in sales, down a modest 13%. Piasa was the largest seller of 70 firms at the Hotel Drouot, with total Hotel Drouot sales at 410 million Euros.

Drouot, where sales were stable, resisted relatively well, no doubt because, as an insignificant centre for auctions of contemporary art, Paris was better placed to resist the global market crisis than many other venues.

Meanwhile the gap between the ‘big three’ (Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Artcurial) and the rest continued to widen.

Christie’s, whose sales of 455.2m euros (£410m) were treble their 2008 total, regained the top spot they have held with one exception since 2002 (the first full year they and Sotheby’s were allowed to sell in France). Excluding the Bergé/St-Laurent sale, that total would have read 112.8m euros (£101.6m), a drop of 25 per cent – prompting Christie’s French boss François Curiel to observe that: “We’re back at 2005 levels, before the upsurge and speculative bubble.”

Even without the Bergé/St-Laurent sale, Christie’s would still have regained the top spot they lost in 2008 to Sotheby’s, whose 98m euros (£88m) total was a 37 per cent fall (albeit after successive annual hikes of 92 and 30 per cent). At both firms, foreign buyers accounted for over three-quarters of turnover.

Of the leading French firms, Artcurial resisted best, consolidating their third position with sales of 81m euros (£73m), down a relatively modest 13 per cent: a shortfall largely accounted for by a 9m euros (25 per cent) drop in sales of modern and contemporary art.

But Artcurial opened up a significant – possibly definitive – gap with long-term rivals Tajan, where sales plummeted 38 per cent to 35.8m euros (£32.3m).

To read the full Antiques Trade Gazette article, click HERE.