Expectations are for all of the sales to toal $1 billion. I know there have been signs of weakness in the art market, but I do think it is fair to say the truly rare and iconic pieces we remain strong.
The Wall Street Journal reports
Source: The Wall Street Journal (sometimes WSJ articles are restricted and protected by a pay wall)It's a seller's market. Next Tuesday when New York's chief auction houses kick off two weeks of major art sales, collectors will see price tags for paintings that put other luxury goods to shame. Four canvases alone are estimated to sell for at least $30 million apiece—a trophy price rarely demanded during the recession or even before.
That's because bigwig sellers who know how to gauge the art market's cycle noticed a reassuring uptick in American bidding during a similar round of New York auctions last fall, a confidence that was matched by exuberant global bidding at London sales earlier this spring. Now, sellers are dusting off their masterpieces and trying to ride the wave.
Those selling into this set of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art auctions include Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who has enlisted Sotheby's to sell "Onement VI," a 1953 royal-blue-and-mint-green Barnett Newman abstract from the "Zip" series, for at least $30 million on May 14. Hyatt Hotels H +3.07% Corporation wants as much or more for Gerhard Richter's blurry, black-and-white depiction of "Cathedral Square, Milan" from 1968—an asking price recently reserved for Richter's later, squeegee abstracts.
Even Madonna is getting into the act: On Tuesday, the singer will ask at least $5 million at Sotheby's for a Fernand Léger Cubist portrait from 1921, "Three Women at a Red Table," that's hung in her New York apartment for decades.
Whether this season amounts to a cresting of art values—or simply the latest surge—remains to be seen, but at least $1 billion in art is about to hit the marketplace so stakes are high.
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