London Post War and Contemporary Art Sales Review & Droit de Suite

Colin Gleadell writing for The Telegraph has a good review of the recent London Post War and Contemporary art sales. The dollar figures from many of the sales was certainly impressive, and Gleadell highlights some of the lots as well as sectors.  For example, he points out that German contemporary art did much better than American Contemporary art.  He also points out the PWC sales are getting to the pre 2008 levels.

Tomorrow I will post a press release from the Mei Moses Art Index/Beautiful Asset Advisors on the PWC sales in London.  It will be interesting indeed to look at the sales from a financial, and repeat sale perspective to see if the sales were indeed as exceptional as reported in the press.  If you recall the NY ImpMod sales, the trade reports thought were only average, but the underlying financial analysis revealed the sales were in fact more successful than thought.

Gleadell also posts on next years British implementation of Artist Resale Rights (Droit de Suite) which will impose additional taxes on artwork of artists who have died within the past 70 years. He points out the out of the top 20 PWC lots and 11 of the tow 20 ImpMod lots would have been subject to additional taxation.

Gleadell reports

European, and especially the German art from the collection of Count Duerkheim, eclipsed the American art on offer. Much of this, though classified as ‘contemporary’, was in fact historic, dating from the 50’s and 60’s, by artists now of the older generation, or no longer living.

Here, alarm bells should be ringing in the corridors of Whitehall. Next year, the European Union is scheduled to implement part two of the Droit de Suite in Britain (part one applied to living European artists only). Part two is a tax on the sales of works by European artists who have died in the last seventy years, in Britain. Were it in operation during these sales, it would have applied to eight out of the top 20 selling contemporary art works (e.g Bacon, Polke, Fontana) and 11 out of the top 20 selling Impressionist and Modern art works (e.g Picasso, Miro, Magritte). The tax already exists in mainland Europe, but not in the UK or outside Europe, and Britain has one last chance to persuade Brussels that the tax benefits a few already wealthy families enormously, but could further divert sales away from Europe, affecting all the ancillary economies (e.g., tourism) that thrive on a healthy art trade.

Time is running out. The French, who at one point looked to be supporting the British in the interests of the European market as a whole, now appear to be backtracking. If the art trade’s fears prove to be founded, the last fortnight might just have been the last great British sales bonanza of modern and contemporary art.

Click HERE to read the full Telegraph article, or search for Droit de Suite for more information on artist rights.

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