2/18/2012

More on London Sales


The Financial Times ran a short art post on the Bonham's Contemporary Art sale.  Unlike the Sotheby's and Chrisite's sales, Bonhma's had a rough time of it with only 9 of its 20 major lots selling.  The pre sale low estimate for the sale was set at $2.85 million with the sale totaling only about $1.6 million. I believe the results are perhaps even more telling as over the past year Bonham's has been pushing to become an alternative to Sotheby's and Christie's.

There continues to be discussion that the middle market is soft and that only the major sales with the best of the best perform well while everything else is met with minimal interest.'

The FT reports on the Bonham's sale

The feel-good factor was absent, however, from Bonhams’ second contemporary art sale in London, held on Monday. It was dire, with just nine of the 20 lots on offer finding buyers. The total of slightly more than £1m was still well short of the lower £1.8m pre-sale target. But despite being pitted against three other auction houses in this super-competitive field, Bonhams says it is planning contemporary art sales in New York in May and London in June. And the firm has bagged a sale of works from a Portuguese collection that it is auctioning in Hong Kong in May during the Hong Kong art fair. The sale, estimated at €3.6m-€5.6m, includes abstracts by Chu Teh-Chun and Zao Wou-Ki as well as 12 works of art, Imperial porcelains and cloisonné pieces.
Source: The Financial Times

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