More Positive Expectations

Kelly Crow of the Wall Street Journal takes a positive look at the upcoming Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips sales. As I posted the other day on Carol Vogels column in the NY Times, expectations are high. Crow states there are 10 works with estimates of over $10 million compared to only 3 from last years impressionist and modern sales. There are also another at over $5 million and 60 priced at over a million (only 36 last year). What this shows is that consignors are willing to sell as they see values back at an acceptable level. The total from the main auctions are expected to bring in over $800 million in sales.

Leaving Toronto Tuesday afternoon, and should be back in VA on Wed. Posts should be back to normal then, with hopeful some good news to post as the sales start.

Crow states

If most of these six-figure works find buyers, the auction houses will have regained much of the momentum they lost amid the recession, according to Art Research Technologies, a New York firm that analyzes auction prices. Overall values for Impressionist and modern art have already climbed nearly 5% this quarter, a bump in step with the 5.5.% gain of the S&P 500 for the same period, according to the Mei Moses All Art Index, which tracks repeat sales of thousands of artworks at auction and compares their trajectory to other financial barometers.

Overall, the houses expect to sell at least $803 million worth of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art—twice as much as they sold last May but still off their $1.4 billion total two years during at the market's peak.

To read the full WSJ article, click HERE.