Less than a month ago Tobias Meyer of Sotheby's left his position as principal auctioneer and head of its contemporary art division (click HERE read the AW post). Christie's has recently announced that Amy Cappellazzo, chairman of postwar and contemporary development will leave the London Auction house in February.
Cappellazzo will be leaving to start her own own art selling business. As the art market continues to grow at the top end, some of the top players in the field are leaving established position to strike out on their own.
To me, this means there is opportunities to be taken advantage of in the art market, and these opportunities should be beneficial to appraisers, art advisors and independent dealers.
See the second block quote from the Financial Times on the sales successes at Art Basel Miami. These kinds of sales results probably factor into the recent decisions of going into private art practices.
The Wall Street Journal reports on Cappellazzo leaving Christie's
Source: The Wall Street JournalNearly a month after Sotheby's parted ways with its head of contemporary art, chief rival Christie's said one of its top contemporary-art executives is also stepping down.
Amy Cappellazzo, 46, Christie's international chairman of postwar and contemporary development, said in an interview Friday that she plans to leave after her auction house conducts its next major sale series in London in February. She said she aims to start her own art-selling venture afterward.
Last month Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's world-wide head of contemporary art, said he also planned to leave the auction business after more than 20 years with the house to be a private art adviser.
Such high-profile departures are the latest sign that the auction industry's top business-getters are starting to spy the chance for greater profits by brokering individual sales of art privately instead of culling pieces to public auction.
As the art market has boomed in recent seasons, both houses have spurred their top staff to cede larger shares of their own sales commissions to convince bigwig sellers to consign art trophies to them over rivals—a strategy that can boost auction totals but may not placate its top business-getters.
Ms. Cappellazzo said her decision to leave wasn't motivated by a desire for a higher share of any particular piece in Christie's recent sales, but she did say she was "intrigued" by possibilities to broker sales on her own. "I think the real opportunities are outside the auction houses now," she said.
Mr. Meyer didn't immediately return a call for comment.
Just as investment banks wrestle with ways to keep their stars from leaving to start hedge funds, Sotheby's and Christie's must seek fresh incentives to hang onto their longtime specialists, mainly because many have nurtured close ties to the world's biggest collectors.
Several other department heads at both houses have gone solo recently, often to start their own art-advisory firms. These include Thomas Seydoux, who once ran Christie's Impressionist and modern art department, and Stephane Connery who once led Sotheby's private sales group. The pair now run their own private firm alongside Lionel Pissarro, painter Camille Pissarro's great-grandson.
Dealers and collectors closely track the moves of top auction specialists in part because they can play a market-making role—by christening rising-star artists and asking record-setting prices for their works at auction.
Ms. Cappellazzo, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., who worked as a curator before joining Christie's in 2001, caused a stir in 2002 when she included a work by contemporary Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang in her New York evening sale of contemporary art for the first time. Chinese living artists weren't auction mainstays at the time; prices for Mr. Cai's gunpowder paintings soared afterward.
Ms. Cappellazzo's tenure also underscores how significant sales of contemporary art have become to the art market overall. In May 2002, Christie's evening sale of contemporary art totaled $38 million. Last month, a similar sale at the house totaled $691.5 million.
In a statement, Christie's Chief Executive Steven Murphy praised Ms. Cappellazzo's "energy, commitment and support" in lifting the house's sales of contemporary art. He also said she was key in pushing the company to offer a wider variety of artworks for sale online, including the remnants of Andy Warhol's estate.
The Financial Times reported on some of the sales, both at the upper end in the millions, and the lower levels under $100,000.
Source: The Financial TimesComing just two weeks after the slam-dunk New York sales of contemporary art, Art Basel Miami Beach’s sales were reportedly excellent. At the high end of the market, Thaddaeus Ropac sold a Baselitz sculpture for $2m; Christophe van de Weghe quickly found a buyer for Richter’s “Abstraktes Bild (595-3)” (1986) at a little over $3m, and Gagosian placed Koons’ crinkled blue “Baroque Egg with Bow (Turquoise/Magenta)” for some $9m. Sales were as strong lower down the scale, with a host of deals in the $200,000-$600,000 range: John Baldessari, Sterling Ruby and George Condo at Sprüth Magers, Nir Hod at Paul Kasmin, Teresita Fernández at Lehmann Maupin.
And there was plenty of enthusiasm under $100,000, with Casa Triângulo of São Paulo placing three paintings by Mariana Palma at $35,000 each and a work by assume vivid astro focus (sic) at $40,000. London’s Alan Cristea, in the new Edition section, did well with works by Julian Opie ($21,500) and Gordon Cheung ($16,000).
The action was not only in the main fair, but also in the 20-plus satellite fairs. At Untitled and at Pulse some booths sold out: London’s Vigo Gallery sold all its works by the Emirati Ayan Farah, at prices from $2,000 to $9,800, and now has a waiting list for her work.
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