Skates Looks at the NY IMP/MOD Sales

Skates looked at the recent NY Impressionist and modern sales and finds that the trends are still positive. Follow the source link to view the artist charts with sales data and effective rates or returns.

Skates reports

New York’s extravaganza of November auctions has presented the first batch of sales results highlighting collectors’ current appetite for blue chip Impressionist and Modern works. In total, Christie’s and Sotheby’s sold 52 artworks priced above USD 2.2 million, the threshold for entry into Skate’s Top 5000. The overall value of these lots was USD 440.4 million.

The recent turbulence in Sotheby’s management has not affected sales results, with the auction house performing better than its competitor in terms of overall value. Sotheby’s sold 25 works above USD 2.2 million, and the overall value of these works totaled USD 251 million. Christie’s, which was the first to hold sales in the Impressionist and Modern Art segment two days prior, saw weaker performance this time. Even though the number of artworks sold above USD 2.2 million was bigger, the 27 works saw lower prices on average with overall sales totaling USD 189 million.

Sotheby’s presented the market with two price records. The highest price was achieved by the bronze Grande tête mince (Grande tête de Diego) by Alberto Giacometti, which just exceeded is high estimate of USD 50 million. Diego en chemise ecossaise by Giacometti was sold at Christie’s for USD 32.6 million, becoming the third best result of the sales taking place this week. Pablo Picasso’s works saw better outcomes at Sotheby’s, occupying the second and fourth place by value with Tête de femme selling for USD 40 million and Mousquetaire à la pipe selling for USD 30.1 million. Picasso Claude et Paloma generated significant bidding at Christie’s, selling for a final price of USD 28.2 million, more than doubling its pre-auction high estimate and placing it in fifth place in the rating of the most valuable works from this week’s sales.

The investment performance of Impressionist and Modern artworks showed positive trends. In total, there were 15 works that have appeared more than once on the public auction market and that sold for prices above the Skate’s Top 5000 threshold of USD 2.2 million. The best results were achieved by Jacques Lipchitz, whose Femme au Serpent was sold at auction seven years ago and found a buyer this week for USD 2.6 million, thus yielding an annualized effective rate of return (ERR) of 19.27%. The table below shows that majority of works by Impressionist and Modern artists have preserved their value over the years and upon resale have provided handsome returns for owners. On average, they produced an ERR of 3.24%. The only work that
failed to succeed this time was Picasso’s Femme à la robe rose. Having sold at auction for USD 4.2 million just three years ago, it was quickly returned to the market, selling at Sotheby’s for a loss of 6.96%. 

Source: Skates