Baron's has a good recap on the NYC contemporary art sales from Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips. Noting biding was active, buy-through rates strong, but lacking the high dollar trophy works as in some past sales.
Overall sales were down 31.5% from 2018 sales for a total of $581.8 million, which according to ArtTactic is the lowest Nov Contemporary sale results since 2011. They also note sales were down over 30% from the 2019 Spring sales. Guarantees coming late in the auction cycle also had an impact.
Baron's reports on the sales
Source: Baron'sThe auction houses saw brisk bidding, and strong sell-through rates in the contemporary art auctions in New York this week, yet a dearth of major estate sales or huge-ticket contemporary works on the scale of a $90 million Jeff Koons ’ Rabbit pushed overall results lower.
According to ArtTactic, sales of contemporary art at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips, in New York this fall fell 31.5% from last November’s results to a total $581.8 million. That’s the lowest result since November 2011, the London-based art market analysis firm said in research released Friday morning.
The fall sales were also 31% lower than the total sales achieved in May in New York, ArtTactic found.
“We’re finding people still want to buy, but the level has come down and the auction houses reflect that,” says Morgan Long, head of art investment at the Fine Art Group in London. “The appetite for pieces in the $50-million-plus range has lessened slightly.”
Still, the auction houses proved buyers were out there for a wide range of art, a fact that was supported by effective pre-auction selling that led to high percentages of lots sold for the major evening sales. ArtTactic’s analysis, in fact, showed a 3.3% average gain in the sell-through rate to 91.9% overall.
“If you are around the 90% level, that’s considered a very healthy market,” says Todd Levin, of Levin Art Group in New York. “Both sales [ Christies and Sotheby’s] for the most part had reasonably constructive healthy bidding. It was a competitive field for the desirable works.”
Sotheby’s sold $271 million of contemporary art at its evening auction on Thursday, including fees, against a pre-sale estimate range between $213.7 million and $300.3 million, with 92% of the lots sold, while Phillips saw a 22% gain in its contemporary evening sale over last year, realizing $108 million, with 95% of lots sold. On Wednesday, Christie’s raised $325.3 million with 89% of lots sold.
At Sotheby’s, some of the most exciting moments of the evening were not the big-ticket top lots—like Willem de Kooning’s Untitled XXII, 1977, which sold for $30.1 million, with fees—but for works that set new benchmarks for long-established artists.
That storyline began at the evening’s outset with a bidding battle for Charles White’s charcoal on illustration board work, Ye Shall Inherit the Earth, 1953, which hammered at $1.45 million—nearly $1.8 million with fees—easily double its high estimate of $700,000. Norman Lewis ’ Ritual, 1962, later sailed past a $1 million high estimate to hammer at $2.3 million—$2.8 million with fees. Both results were auction records for the artists.
There was also a 15-minute-long volley for bids largely between specialists on the phone for Clyfford Still’s PH-399, 1946, a key work in the history of abstract expressionism, which hammered at $21.1 million, achieving $24.3 million, with fees. Also noteworthy: Wayne Thiebaud’s Encased Cases, 2011, hammered for $7.2 million, nearly $8.5 million with fees, achieving a new auction record for the artist, who turns 99 on Friday.
Overall, the bidding throughout was strong, with at least three bidders on average participating in each lot, according to Sotheby’s. That was despite the fact that 20 of the 49 lots carried guarantees, meaning the sale of works were secured. Guarantees are pre-arranged sales at a fixed price with the consignor and the auction house or a third party, while an irrevocable bid is a promise to bid at a price to sell during the auction.
Many of the guarantees by the auction houses, and third parties, came late in the auction cycle once it became clear that demand was stronger than initially anticipated when the auction houses were consigning works, says Evan Beard, national art services director at Bank of America Private Bank. At that time, about six months ago, worries about a pending recession were more prevalent.
That meant fewer guarantors were around to support super-high price tags on trophy works. ArtTactic found that the value of guarantees had dropped 33% in the fall to $360.5 million, down from $537.2 million a year earlier. Overall, 52.1% of the lots were guaranteed this fall, down from 52.7% last year.
“The market for auction guarantees (risk appetite among guarantors) is now pretty much deciding the outcome at the top end of the art market, and it looks like the guarantors are increasingly getting jittery,” ArtTactic said.
But the fact more guarantors stepped in just ahead of the sales could be a sign of renewed market strength. Those who put up guarantees—and that includes many long-time collectors—share in the amount a work fetches above the guarantee level, a gamble collectors comfortable with owning the works seem more willing to take now, according to Beard.
At Bank of America, “we did a lot of deals ahead of the sale to ensure and enable some of that buying,” he says.
It’s that demand that could bode well for the spring, when Beard says “a couple very exciting large estates” are likely to hit the market.
Among them will be the more than $700 million art collection owned by the billionaires Harry Macklowe and Linda Macklowe, who are divorcing. According to artnet News, a court is ordering the sale of the collection, and it is expected to be handled by one of the major auction houses.
Generally, the estates include “a few higher-value works than we saw this season,” which Beard says, “could create an umbrella effect for the market.”
But then again, he adds, “who knows?”
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