The NY Times reports on Christie's decision to move its Impressionist/Modern evening sales from the first week of May to the second. This is the same weed the Contemporary/Post War sales take place. Sotheby's is staying with the traditional schedule.
So in the first week of May there will only be one major evening sale, the Sotheby's Impressionist/Moder sale. Week two, according to the NY Times article will have 5 evening sales including speciality sales. Some of the rationale for the change has to do with new trends in buying habits, accommodating buyers during one week instead of two, and drawing more attention with the multiple sales. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.
The NY Times reports
Source: The NY TimesAt first glance, it seems a simple thing: This year, Christie’s has decided to hold its Impressionist and Modern art evening auction in the second week of May, not the first, as it usually does.
But this change in the traditional New York auction calendar has set off a chain of reactions, with some art-market insiders applauding the move and others suggesting that it threatens to be disruptive.
The only evening sale during the first week of May, traditionally the opening of the spring auction season in Manhattan, will be an auction of Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s on May 5.
But the second auction week will be quite crowded. There will be five evening auctions, beginning Monday, May 11, with a special Christie’s evening sale that includes Modern and contemporary art.
On Thursday, May 14, there will be two auctions on the same night, creating a rare conflict for collectors who want to attend the Christie’s Impressionism and Modern art sale at 5:30 p.m. and still make it to a Phillips sale of contemporary art at 7 p.m.
“Fatigue may have set in by then, but it is very hard to predict,” said David Nash, a New York gallerist and former Sotheby’s executive.
Christie’s said that it made the move to stage its contemporary and Modern sales in the same week in order to avoid a clash with the Venice Biennale, the annual art exhibition in Italy that draws many collectors, and added that the change would accommodate those who pursue art from several periods, a group that the auction house says is a growing sector of the market.
“It is very much what collectors are doing today,” Jussi Pylkkanen, global president of Christie’s, said. “They are looking at 100 years of art rather than 50.”
He added, “It is a generational shift.”
Sotheby’s said it saw no reason to change the date of its Impressionism and Modern art sale, even though it will now be the only night auction that week.
Sotheby’s will hold its contemporary auction a week afterward, as usual.
“We are looking forward to a busy exhibition period and a full salesroom on the night of May 5,” said Simon Shaw, co-head of the Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art department.
Richard L. Feigen, a Manhattan dealer, said that the rescheduling made sense to accommodate foreign buyers who want to visit New York for a shorter period of time, and added that he, too, was seeing “a real smudging in the line between Modern and contemporary” in collectors’ tastes.
“I can understand people buying a Picasso might also be in the market for a Rothko,” Mr. Feigen said.
Some experts wonder whether buyers will bother to show up for the first week, even though there will be a schedule of day sales, while others worry that collectors may not be in a buying mood by the end of the second.
The Christie’s auction of Impressionist and modern art had originally been scheduled for the first week of May, and that was still the plan when specialists for the auction house secured some of their finest consignments, including the collection of Goldman Sachs executive John C. Whitehead, who died in February, which includes works by Modigliani and Monet.
But Achim Moeller, the New York dealer who advised Mr. Whitehead and his estate, said he was not concerned by the auction’s move to the second week.
“It was a good idea to do so, because you are going to have an entire week dedicated to evening sales, and that of course will draw a lot of attention from the international world onto Christie’s,” he said. “People who focus on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will also focus on Thursday.”
He added: “You can’t tell me that if Sotheby’s has a Monet the week before that the potential buyers of Monet will not also look at Monet on Thursday. Very often people are on the phone anyway.”
Christie’s said it had consulted with all consignors before changing the date, and none had withdrawn their works.
Michael Plummer, a principal and co-founder of Artvest Partners, an art advisory company, said cross-collecting was a trend that justified the shift by Christie’s. He has organized an art fair, Spring Masters, that is based on the same concept. The fair, at the Park Avenue Armory from May 8-12, will feature dealers selling works spanning some 2,000 years — a first-century Roman bust alongside 14th-century Italian paintings and 21st-century works.
Mr. Plummer said that of late, older works have typically been undervalued as the industry has obsessed over the boom in contemporary art.
“People buy across periods,” he said. “Rather than spending half a million dollars on a piece of sculpture that is 10 years old, you can spend a similar amount or less on something 2,000 years old.”
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