Christies

All secrets eventually come out. At the recent London auctions, in which both Sotheby's and Christie's saw several lots set records, Russian collectors poured some money back into the art market, and Laurence Graff, chairman of Graff Diamonds, parted with a healthy dose of cash. It's this action that caused a combined tally of £258.9 million (including fees), more than double the result a year earlier.

The UK-based diamond dealer sunk £8.1 million into Pablo Picasso's "Tete de Femme (Jacqueline) at the Christie's auction, spending 100 percent more than the high-end presale estimate for the piece. According to Bloomberg News, Graff confirmed the acquisition by e-mail.

Russian billionaires got back into the game, as well, and they exercised better judgment than they did during the art boom, when prices for artists such as Damien Hirst were propelled to absurd levels.

The Impressionist sector has held on rather well, by comparison. "The market for Impressionist and modern art hasn't been as frothy and speculative as contemporary," said Guy Jennings, partner in the London-based dealership Theobald Jennings. "Last year, prices might have slipped five or 10 percent, but since then there's been some asset inflation. That might not be the case in six months' time if there's a double-dip recession."

Author Michael Crichton wasn't just a prolific writer and the creator of "ER" he was also an avid art collector. Crichton, who died in 2008, had collected works from Picasso, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and others. Some of those works will be sold by Christie's in New York as part of their May auctions. The total value for the collection hasn't been given but just the haul from the big four listed above is supposed to top $32 million. One piece is one of John's famous flag paintings. Crichton was a Johns scholar, the two had met and this painting, "Flag" by Johns, dated 1960-66, was bought directly from the artist's collection and has never been on the public market.

Auctions that have a celebrity provenance have done well in the past few years even when the rest of the art market was in the doldrums. With the recent excitement of a new record set by a Giacometti sculpture, hopes are high for big results on this one. Reuters reports that the auction record for a Johns is $17.4 million set back in 2007 for his 1959 work "Figure 4," but that another piece, "False Start," sold for a reported $80 million in a private sale.

The art market's biggest question turned out to have a $200 million answer at Sotheby's on Wednesday night. Led by Alberto Giacometti's "L'Homme Qui Marche I," which an anonymous bidder picked up for more than $104 million, the auction house realized a total take of $235.7 million on 31 sold lots. Nobody expected this outcome, not even the most optimistic art market spectators, let alone a committed pessimist like me. Of course, my first instinct is to suggest that we wait for the contemporary art sales next week, but it's hard to deny that this week's outcome is both promising and exciting.

The Giacometti set a new record for the artist, sailing past the $27.5 million picked up by "Grand femme debout II" at a Christie's sale in May 2008. In driving nearly half the auction's sales, this piece made it clear that the art market comeback is more than the wishful thinking of collectors who have spent more than a year and a half watching their pieces lose value. A year from now, we'll be looking at "Homme" as the symbol of the art market's recovery, much as we've come to see that final $85 million Francis Bacon sale in May 2008 as the peak before the decline.

Eight lots failed to sell at the Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern evening sale, but this hardly matters when considered against the auction's overall performance. Presale expectations were beat by more than 100 percent, thanks in large part to the fact that 17 of the lots sold for more than £1 million each. Three lots crossed the £10 million threshold. Works by Georges Seurat, Paul Cezanne, Gustav Klimt and Camille Pissarro easily pushed into seven-figure territory.

Liya Alfred by Brian Alfred

Christie's own New York gallery outpost Haunch of Venison is hosting a special benefit Monday night for The Time In Children's Arts Initiative, a HiArt! outreach program that is dedicated to bringing arts-inspired curriculum to at-risk schoolkids.

Galleries all over the city and individual artists have donated special works and experience packages to the auction to raise much needed funds, as schools across the city continue to cut their art budgets. Time In has spent the last year immersing Harlem kindergarteners and first graders in art, including gifting them with art supplies to sketch in HiArt! studios or in museums and galleries across the city. It's an inspiring new program that is set to grow exponentially with a little help from New York art patrons.

It looks like Christie's agrees with me (or, I agree with Christie's): the art market is going to recover this year. The auction house, which is bringing some powerful inventory under the gavel at its contemporary art sale next month, expects the market to recover this year. With the improvement in conditions, price guarantees may return, as well.

In 2009, Christie's states, sales fell to 2.1 billion pounds, a decline of 24%. For the contemporary category, which was hit worst by the art market slump, sales dropped 59% to 244.3 million pounds -- in 2007, it only took a handful of pieces to get up to this amount.

According to Edward Dolman, chief executive of Christie's, "These figures were much better than we expected." He observed to Bloomberg News, "The art market is vulnerable and we thought we'd be down 50 percent, as we were in the last recession in 1991." Christie's, along with the other major house, Sotheby's, were able to compensate for weakness in contemporary art with sales of Old Masters, wine and jewelry. Also, performance in Asia contributed to the salvaging of 2009, where average selling rates by lot gained 5% to 80% in 2009.

The Old Masters group gained 1% last year, one of only four categories to show an up-tick in 2009. The best performer, however, was the 20th Century Decorative Arts category, which posted a 149% increase, helped along by the 21.9 million euros paid for an Eileen Gray chair at the record-setting Yves Saint Laurent sale.

Last fall we learned that Gucci collectors would soon have a new way to value and sell their objects. Christie's and Gucci have partnered on a new website, Gucci Collector, where people can upload vintage items and get an appraisal. Christie's and Gucci are both part of the luxury megagroup PPR. Christie's provides, at no charge, auction estimates for vintage Gucci. The website defines Gucci vintage products as those that are generally a less common piece and at least 20 years old (other limited edition pieces or ones that have a special provenance might also be considered). In order to file a request the Gucci owner needs to submit good color images of the pieces, information on dimensions and materials and copies of any documentation of the item. Christie's promises a response within 2-4 weeks.

For those with good Gucci pieces that might not fit Christie's exacting standards there are plenty of other options. There's the old standby, eBay.com but there you run into the potential for auctioning off your items cheek by jowl with some less-than-scrupulous auction holders. Another good option is Portero.com which deals in only luxury goods. You pay $25 per item listing plus 30 percent of final sale price. Items are shipped to Portero where they are evaluated for authenticity, condition and value before being listed for sale. Another option is local consignment shops which usually have a similar percentage deal (although the exact percentage can vary). The downside of consigning locally is that it could sit on a shelf for a while until the right person walks through the door.

Christie's will offer the largest Old Master painting ever to be put up for sale in the auction house's illustrious history in its Old Master & 19th Century Paintings, Drawings, & Watercolors event in New York on Jan. 27. Le Pont Sur Le Torrent, painted in the mid-1780s by Hubert Robert, measures over 20 feet wide by 13 feet high, and carries an estimate of $2 million - $3 million. Originally commissioned by the Duc de Luynes for the dining room of his mansion in Paris, in 1925 it was acquired at auction by William Randolph Hearst and once decorated the beachfront castle that the newspaper baron purchased in late 1927 in Sands Point, Long Island as a retreat for his wife Millicent. The awe-inspiring artwork has not been seen in public in more than 50 years.

In 2008, an astounding 65 pieces by Damien Hirst fetched seven-figures each at auction. The total came to $230 million. The numbers are nothing short of staggering, especially when you compare it to what he did six years earlier, when the annual total for his work hit a mere $2 million. Clearly, some excitement was generated, and art collectors rode the wave. The last major sale was conducted at Sotheby's on September 15 and 16. "Beautiful Inside My Head Forever," as it was called, made a killing for the hottest living artist ... right before the financial world went to straight to hell. This bold move, however, led to a period of silence for the artist and stagnation for his collectors.

Shortly after the mortgage market mayhem became a global financial affair, unsold rates for Hirst's work shot from 11 percent to 55 percent by the end of the year. A mere 12 months after his he emptied the insides of his head -- not to mention plenty of inventory -- prices for Hirst's work returned to 2004 levels. A year after buying "Butterfly" painting "I Miss You" in late October 2008, Christie's unloaded it for a mere $450,000, only half what it had paid. In 2004, the piece's initial auction price was $415,000. I suspect this is at least part of the reason why the auction houses backed away from guaranteed minimum pricing ...

With the books closed on 2009, only two pieces by Hirst pierced the million dollar mark, both from the "Butterfly" series. "Tranquility" brought in $1.5 million back in May at an auction in Hong Kong. Almost half a year later, "The Importance of Elsewhere-The Kingdom of Heave" brought in close to $2 million, again at a Hong Kong auction. Both sales came from Seoul, not the usual New York and London communities.

The London art auctions are upon us, and a year has made a hell of a difference. The auctions at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips de Pury are expected to fetch at least $104 million, which would be an increase of 68 percent over the same season in 2009. If the houses can pull this off, the art market will probably breathe a collective sigh of relief after more than a year of downright awful results.

At this point last year, the art market was in miserable shape. It was already in trouble, as the recession had begun to crystallize over the summer of 2008, a process which was hardened by the financial market meltdown in September. By the end of the year, prices had plummeted, and the practice of guaranteed minimum pricing had generally been abandoned.

By the end of 2009, signs of a recovery began to emerge, though few were willing to commit to it. A few pieces, such as Andy Warhol's "200 One Dollar Bills" turned in strong performances, but nothing was solid enough to call a trend. Nonetheless, hopes are high for the next round of sales, which will include museum-caliber paintings by Peter Doig and Yves Klein. Shown at right is Andy Warhol's Dollar Sign estimated at $1,950,000 - $2,925,000 at Christie's London Post War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction on February 11.

The first decade of the new millennium was the domain of Latin America, Asia, Turkey and Russia. A robust art market emerged in the Middle East, which brought with it plenty of interest in the region's artist. But, what about Africa? The continent has been underrepresented in galleries and at auction, but it looks like collectors eager to try something new may be developing an appetite for African art.

The region's offering is both large and incredibly diversified, according to a report by Artprice, and over the past 20 years, several African artists have been able to garner some attention at international art fairs and major exhibitions. Pieces have been featured sporadically, with a show at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1989 and anther two years later at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. The Africa Remix exhibition toured from 2004 to 2007 ... and that's about it.

There's been a bit more action in the auction market, with Sotheby's becoming the first major house to sell contemporary African art in June 1999, when it sent the Jean Pigozzi collection under the gavel in London. It generated less than $16,000 but still set a record. Since then, Sotheby's hasn't dedicated any London or New York sales to African art (aside from its work with South African auctioneer, Stephan Welz & Co). Bonhams has taken more of an interest in the category, holding an African art sale back in April and moving 64 percent of the lots offered.

A rather intriguing lot will be up for auction at Christie's later this month. An 1872 skull ballot box from Yale University's mysterious Skull and Bones society will be sold as part of Christie's New York's Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver & Chinese Export sale on January 22. The skull has a hinge on top and is surrounded by charred-looking crossbones one inscribed with the word Thor. Skull and Bones was founded in 1832 and has been the subject of many works of history and fiction (I found Secrets of the Tomb to be particularly riveting). Many notable Yalies including both Bush presidents have been members. The lot includes a black book with names and photographs of earlier members and is estimated at $10,000 to $20,000.

UPDATE: This lot has been withdrawn from sale due to a "title claim."

[via ArtDaily]

Bvlgari finished off its 125th anniversary year in style at Christie's New York with an auction to benefit Save the Children. To close out its 125th anniversary year, the jeweler hosted a star-studded crowd at the auction house and put 11 incredible jewelry lots and seven timepieces up for sale. Stars in attendance included Morgan Fairchild, Rose Byrne, Jessica Lange and Ricky Martin, who posed with model Esther Canadas. Bvlgari raised a total of $1,546,500 including $270,000 for the diamond Lucea choker seen in the gallery below. The company will be working with Save the Children again next year.

Christie's and Sotheby's aren't being shy with the Old Masters. Pieces by Rembrandt, Raphael and Van Dyck are being offered at hefty prices, some records, that could bring in up to $133 million. If this happens, art collectors will have doubled last year's result ... and cast a strong vote in favor of an art market recovery.

The Christie's sale on Tuesday will include a portrait by Rembrandt and a sketch by Raphael. They are being estimated at 18 million pounds and 12 million pounds, respectively. According to Christie's, these are the highest estimates seen at auction, says Bloomberg News. The Sotheby's sale occurs on Tuesday, featuring a Van Dyck portrait that could fetch as much as 3 million pounds.

Unlike the volatile market for contemporary art, prices for the Old Masters have been relatively stable, as the supply is diminishing and demand is increasing.

According to Johnny van Haeften, an art dealer based in London, told Bloomberg News, "Prices at auction are very strong because there isn't much out there." He continues, "People don't want to sell at the moment. They're saying, 'If I let a painting go, where do I put the money? I'd rather keep it in a work of art.'" He bid unsuccessfully for two still life pieces by 17th century Dutch painter Adriaen Coorte. Both ultimately sold for more than 10 times their high-end presale estimates.

[Photo via Christie's]

Hong Kong's fall sales have been great for records, for Christie's in particular. After several were broken at the art auction this week, the gem scene was ignited. A pink diamond no larger than a chickpea went for $10.8 million, according to Bloomberg News. The stone had the second-highest rating available (potentially flawless) and a weight of 5 carats. It shattered the per-carat record set back in May. Back then, Hong Kong property investor Joseph Lau picked up a 7.03-carat blue diamond at an auction in Geneva for $10.5 million.

The pink diamond was sent under the gavel by Graff Diamonds, a London-based jeweler. The stone was sold to a phone bidder who beat out Liu Yiqian and his wife, Wang Wei. But, those two have bought enough already, right?

Overall, the 255 lots sold (an 89 percent sell rate) brought in HK$372 million, with the action pushed forward by mainland Chinese, a growing trend in the auction world this year. Donald May, a ruby and sapphire dealer based in Hong Kong, attended the auction and told Bloomberg, "There's a lot of mainland Chinese buying; either they didn't know what the items are worth or they wanted them so badly that price didn't matter." He believes that prices were pushed way out of control.

There were other records set in Hong Kong, as well. A sapphire weighing 16.65 carats, set by Van Cleef & Arpels, brought in HK$18.6 million, also setting a per-carat record.

[Photo courtesy of Christie's]

One bidder spent more than $146 million this year and dropped a boatload of cash at the Christie's Hong Kong art auction on Monday, pushing prices higher and smashing records. Wang Wei, with her husband, investor Liu Yiqian, ranks 176th among the wealthiest in China, with a net worth of $740 million ... and she wouldn't say how much she's spent on art this year.

Wang waved Paddle 960 aggressively on Monday, sometimes tossing bids up HK$1 million at a time to distance herself from competitors for particular pieces. A few times, she didn't bother lowering her paddle, instead just holding it up until her rivals quit.

At Sotheby's Hong Kong in October, Wang's husband shelled out $11 million for a Qing Dynasty imperial throne, complete with carved dragons, setting a record. And, this month, he payd $25 million for a Ming Dynasty scroll by Wu Bin at Beijing's Poly auction -- it was the most paid for a Chinese painting.

At Monday's Christie's sale, HK$126.7 million in art sold, and the house wouldn't reveal how much of it went to Wang. Speaking for herself, the collector reveals why she made the purchases she did. According to Bloomberg News: "I just bought those for fun."

[Photo courtesy of Christie's]