Signs of a Cooling Contemporary Art Market?

The NY Times just published a short post using research by ArtTactic that the growth at the top end of the contemporary art market may be slowing. The ArtTactic data suggests the strength in the market from the recent NY sales was skewed in part by the curated, but very successful "Looking Forward to the Past" sale. The ArtTactic analysis believes if those sales are removed the growth  at Christies sales is only 2.2% higher than the November sale. But, would those works, at least part of them if not part of the curated sale still be offered.

The NY Times reports

The huge numbers generated by Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips at auction binges in New York from May 11 to 15 created a sense that prices for the most desirable Modern and contemporary artworks are rising unstoppably. But new research by the London art market analysts ArtTactic suggests the pace of growth for high-value contemporary works is slowing.

Christie’s was the dominant player at the week’s headline evening sales, claiming a 65 percent market share, according to ArtTactic. That auction house raised a combined $1.4 billion with fees from its experimental “Looking Forward to the Past” sale of 20th-century masterworks on May 11 and its May 13 offering of contemporary art.

But $492.9 million of this total was generated on May 11 by works that would normally be included in Impressionist and Modern sales. Four out of five of the most expensive works in the “Looking Forward” auction were Modern pieces, led by Picasso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)” at $179.4 million. Without those earlier works, the $871.5 million raised by contemporary pieces at the two sales was just 2.2 percent higher than the $852.9 million Christie’s took at its evening contemporary sale in November. And to achieve that increase it offered 22 additional works. “The auction market for contemporary art is under constant pressure to beat the previous sales season,” said Anders Petterson, managing director of ArtTactic. “The headline figures are up, but to do that they’re having to prop up the sales with more lots.”

The percentage of guaranteed contemporary works at Christie’s evening auctions increased to 52 percent in May from 44 percent in November, according to ArtTactic. Meanwhile, average prices decreased 15.8 percent. Takashi Murakami (three of four lots unsold), Willem de Kooning (two of seven lots hammered below estimate, two unsold) and John Chamberlain (three sold below estimate) were artists whose works were struggling to achieve sellers’ expectations at the evening sales held by all three houses, according to ArtTactic.

Source: The NY Times