Cashing In On Contemporary Art

A few days ago the NY Times took a look at the upcoming contemporary art sales and notes the sales and catalogs are full of individual paintings and artworks of over $20 million. It appears that based upon the great success of the previous important contemporary art sales collectors are eager to cash in on quality works.

The NY Times reports

This season’s contemporary art catalogs are as thick as doorstops, brimming with more paintings, drawings and sculptures with estimates of over $20 million than ever before. “There are still masterworks in the hands of collectors who have had them from the beginning, and they realize that there are collectors out there who only want the best,” said Brett Gorvy, chairman of Christie’s postwar and contemporary art department.

These auctions also underscore the disparity between the more modest market for Impressionist and modern art, where fewer blockbusters remain in private hands, and the seemingly endless supply of top-notch contemporary art.

“Can the market handle it? That’s the question,” said Tobias Meyer, director of Sotheby’s contemporary art department worldwide. “This world has become an ever-evolving circus, what with all the art fairs and galleries. The trick is getting the attention of the buying community.”

Both companies sent a selection of their best works to the Middle East, Asia, Russia and Europe so that prospective buyers could see them in person.

While the headliners this fall include some celebrated images — a Jeff Koons “Balloon Dog” sculpture, one of Warhol’s “Car Crash” paintings and the Bacon triptych depicting the British artist Lucian Freud — there are smaller gems, too. The season starts with a special sale at Christie’s on Monday night devoted to paintings, drawings and sculptures from the estate of the Geneva dealer Jan Krugier, who died in 2008. Culled from his personal collection and gallery stock, the sale items include a few big-ticket paintings, among them a 1911 Kandinsky landscape (with an estimate of $20 million to $30 million) and several Picassos, like “Tête,” a cutout sheet-iron sculpture created as a study for a 50-foot steel sculpture in Daley Plaza in Chicago (with an estimate of $25 million to $35 million). There are scores of personal objects, too, including a wood cigar made by Picasso in 1941 and a wood chessboard by Duchamp from 1937. Krugier “not only had a great eye but was also a compulsive buyer,” said Conor Jordan, deputy chairman of Christie’s Impressionist and modern art department.

Sotheby’s has a smaller collection composed of avant-garde paintings, drawings and sculptures from an unidentified European collector that is part of its evening Impressionist and modern art auction on Wednesday. In addition to paintings by Picasso, Léger and Gris, there are exceptional examples of lesser known artists like Francis Picabia and Giacomo Balla. Their work is likely to appeal to the connoisseur rather than trophy hunters, and is expected to bring record prices.

Phillips has a more modest sale featuring a 1962 Lichtenstein, “Woman With Peanuts.” “Every season we’ve seen new buyers entering the market, most recently from places like Mexico, Brazil and mainland China,” said Simon Shaw, who runs Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art department in New York. “Many of them are looking for great quality and also for diversification.” And for many of them, dropping $20 million or more may be what it takes to become a player.

Source: The NY Times