CNBC has a piece on the upcoming auctions next week, forecasting a potential surge in market strength after several sluggish quarters as Sotheby’s Tad Smith points out that the art market may be poised for structural growth over its usual cyclical patterns.  “The median member of the Forbes 400 would have seen his personal spending power to purchase art at auction grow 75 percent in the past decade alone,” Smith said during his call with investors this week. (more…)

Gerhard Richter, Eisberg (1982), via Sothebys

The marathon weeks of March art sales have completed their run in London this evening, following a Sotheby’s outing this evening that concludes a trio of Contemporary and Post-War sales in the British capital.  Challenging easy assumptions about a slumping art market, Sotheby’s indicated an early push for market share with this sale, carrying a daring 40% of its offerings this evening with guaranteed bids that seemed to pay off with consistently strong results.  The auction house’s 64-lot outing managed to manage a number of impressive sales on top of a consistently comeptitive pool of bidders, resulting in a final sales figure of £118,015,150 with only a handful of unsold lots (4 total). (more…)

Mark Rothko, No. 1 (1949), via Christie’s

With the proceedings of the Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale concluded this past week, attention turns to London’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sales, as a trio of auctions will look to test the waters in the early months of 2017.  Boasting an impressively strong focus in particular on German art, the auction houses will seek strong results in a market that has seen noticeably turbulent, unpredictable results in the past months.  Yet a recent bump in the London art market, driven by the weak pound, may see some unexpected results for the week’s offerings.  Either way, the week should see each auction house battling it out for market share through aggressive guarantees.  (more…)

Gustav Klimt, Bauerngarten (Blumengarten) (1907), via Sotheby’s

Following a strong outing by Christie’s this week in London, Sotheby’s has taken its turn at the Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist markets, capping a tightly-run sale this evening that continued a week of unexpectedly strong outings for both auction houses, ultimately tallying a final of £177,022,250 for the auction house’s Impressionist and Modern sale (with 4 lots going unsold over the course of the evening), and £17,671,250 for its Surrealist sale shortly after (which saw only 2 lots go unsold).   (more…)

Gustav Klimt,  Bauerngarten (Blumengarten) (1907), via Sotheby’s

Moving away out of the depths of winter and towards the spring market rush, Sotheby’s and Christie’s will kick off their respective sales of Surrealist, Impressionist and Modern works this coming week, marking the first major auctions of 2017, and signaling the first real test of a market dealt the lion’s share of uncertainty in the past six months.  Taking place in London, the week’s sales will offer a first look at how recent shakeups at both auction houses, and attempts to broaden their respective scopes, will fare with works on the block.

Paul Gauguin, Te Fare (La maison) (1892), via Christie’s

(more…)

Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith is interviewed by CNBC this week, stating that Donald Trump’s election as President will help benefit the art market’s recovery over the next year.  “I think there’s been a fairly good feeling among the art collectors this week,” Smith says. “There’s just a lot of very wealthy people from all types of countries… and they have a lot of capital to deploy.” (more…)

Gerhard Richter, A.B. Still (1986), final price: $33,987,500, via Sotheby’s

Concluding the last major week of auction sales before the end of a rollercoaster calendar year, Sotheby’s capped an impressively consistent sale of Post-War and Contemporary artworks last night in New York City, a 64-lot outing that saw the auction house continue to upend expectations in a week that has been defined by unexpected records and several marquee auction records.  The sale reached a final tally of $276,560,750, with 4 of 64 works unsold. (more…)

Edvard Munch, Girls on the Bridge (1902), via Art Observed

The packed week of New York auctions began uptown tonight, as Sotheby’s capped its Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale this evening to unexpectedly energetic results, reaching a final tally of $157,714,75o, with 9 of the night’s 42 lots offered going unsold.  Auctioneer Helena Newman led a brisk sale over the course of the evening, coordinating quick back and forth bids that kept prices rising and works moving quickly, a performance that earned a number of strong sales in the early lots, and kept momentum high until the last lots of the sale, when enthusiasm seemed to peter out. (more…)

Willem de Kooning, Untitled XXV (1977), via Christie’s

As the fall season moves towards December, the last major auction week of the year is set to kick off in New York, with a series of sales set to take place that will offer the last major barometer for the auction market’s health in a turbulent, and often unpredictable, year.  Beginning Monday, a series of both Impressionist/Modern and Contemporary Evening auctions will bring the last set of major works to the auction block in the U.S. before the market prepares for the holiday months.

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait (Fright-Wig) (1986), via Sotheby’s

(more…)

Sotheby’s is showing a loss $54.5 million for the third quarter, the New York Times reports, as the art market’s slump continues to affect sales, and changed scheduling saw fewer major auctions during the quarter.  “The third-quarter results were not expected to be good,” Tad Smith, Sotheby’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. “Underneath our seasonally low level of sales, there were encouraging but tentative indicators that the market could be looking for a rallying point.” (more…)

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hannibal (1982), via Sotheby’s

The Sotheby’s Contemporary and Post-War Evening Sale closed out a weekend of unexpectedly strong and enthusiastic sales in London this week, continuing both a solid week of sales at Frieze London as well as a series of impressive sales at both Christie’s and Phillips in the past days.  Adding its own mark to the week’s proceedings, the auction house saw strong results for its first major offering of the fall season, tallying a final result £47,953,000 with 3 of the 34 lots going unsold. (more…)

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hannibal (1982), via Sotheby’s

With the opening days of Frieze London also come the opening forays into the secondary market for the fall calendar for the British capital, with Phillips, Sotheby’s and Christie’s each trying their hand at a market that has seen distinctly turbulent, albeit occasionally impressive results for what many are calling a sales slump.  Coming off a sluggish summer with an above expectations at Phillips’ New, Now, Next sale of young artists in the past weeks, market spectators and the odd speculator are watching the Contemporary Evening Sales closely this week.

Rudolf Stingel, Untitled (2007), via Phillips

(more…)

The Art Market Monitor notes Sotheby’s choice to sell a recent David Hockney Woldgate landscape in its upcoming November sales in New York, and notes a series of interesting choices made by the auction in its selection.  “It has an eye-opening estimate of $9-12m for a body of work that has not seen action on the public market; and, Sotheby’s seems to be banking on the success of February’s big Tate retrospective which isn’t always a slam-dunk,” Marion Maneker writes. (more…)

During the quarterly earnings call, Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith announced that the company would post $89 million in net income for the second quarter of 2016, noting the current turbulence in the art market as ongoing.  “There are a number of geopolitical, macroeconomic, commodity pricing, and financial market uncertainties that leave the art market with a paradox,” Smith said. “On the one hand, collectors are still buying top-quality works of art in well-curated sales. On the other hand, consignors who have the luxury of discretion are showing a bit of reluctance to sell their work at this time.” (more…)

Sotheby’s is opening an exhibition in Montauk this summer, showing a series of works by Joel Mesler, former artist and current head of Feuer/Mesler.  “On view will be a selection of ten paintings by the artist-dealer, each of which responds to the cultural history of the sea, New York City’s annual migration to Long Island resort towns, and vacation-induced identity shifts,” the press release reads. “With his trademark wit and idiosyncratic figurative style, Mesler presents a body of work that is both as vacant and generous as a long weekend by the sea.” (more…)

Jenny Saville, Shift (1996-97), via Sotheby’s

The post-Brexit contemporary sales continued in London this past evening, as Sotheby’s capped a 47-lot offering of contemporary and post-war works, seeing all but 7 works find a buyer, and bringing in a sales tally of £52,194,000 that exceeded its initial $35 million estimates. (more…)

Sotheby’s has announced that Benjamin Doller will take over as the chairman of Sotheby’s Americas, effective immediately.  Dollar has worked with the company for over 35 years, and has recently served as the company’s Vice Chair for the Americas.  “The auction world is an evolving space, and I thrive on change,” he said in a statement.  “Sotheby’s its embracing that evolution in everything it does, which makes this a particularly exciting time to be a part of this business.”  (more…)

Amedeo Modigliani, Jeanne Hébuterne (Au Foulard) (1919), via Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s logged its entry in the Impressionist and Modern Evening sales last evening, with a healthy, brisk sale that reached a final tally of £103,280,000, beating initial estimates with only three works unsold.  Despite a small selection of lots, the evening’s offerings saw healthy competition, and several top lots that commanded hefty final prices, even if prices tapered off quickly after several marquee works.

(more…)

Sigmar Polke, Rotter Fisch (Red Fish) (1992), via Sotheby’s

As the sales and events surrounding Art Basel begin to wind down this weekend, many collectors will turn their attention to London, where two weeks of auctions will mark the final major sale of the first half of 2016.  Spread across five auctions, the sales seem notably subdued in comparison with last month’s attempts to shoot the moon in New York, perhaps in part due to concerns about Britain leaving the EU blunting collectors’ willingness to invest in the pound, yet strong works and seemingly hearty interest may manage to keep the them interesting. (more…)

Sotheby’s has added a $40 million Amedeo Modigliani to its upcoming Impressionist and Modern sale this month in London.  The work is a portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne, the artist’s lover during his last years, who committed suicide after his death.   (more…)

Cheyenne Westphal, one of Sotheby’s top sellers and a “secret weapon” according to Harper’s Bazaar, will leave the auction house to chair Phillips.  “We are delighted that Cheyenne has agreed to join Phillips,” says current chair and CEO Edward Dolman. (more…)

A new world record set for Sam Francis tonight, via Art Observed

Another night of sales has come and gone at Sotheby’s, with an unexpectedly robust outing from the auction house that moved quickly through the 44-lot sale to a final total of $242,194,000.  The sale was a short but impressive affair, as the auction house’s early lots consistently beat out estimates in the early lots, and ultimately saw only a small handful of lots go unsold.  The sale makes for an impressive response to market alarmists and critics of the auction house, showing there seems to still be strong enthusiasm in the contemporary market. (more…)

Paul Signac, Maisons du Port, Saint-Tropez (1892), via Sotheby’s

Having just announced a loss of over $25 million for the first quarter of 2016, Sotheby’s needed a strong performance this evening to alleviate concerns over its recent shakeups and acquisitions, but there were few reassurances in sight for the house’s New York Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale tonight, as it concluded a 62 lot outing with almost a third of the works going unsold, bringing a final sales tally of $144,434,000. (more…)

Sotheby’s has posted a $25.9 million loss for the first quarter of 2016, a figure attributed to its expenditure to buy out Amy Cappelazzo’s art advisory business, and the staff buyouts that it launched simultaneously.  “The days of the two major auction houses making big losing bets on guarantees just to gain market share may be behind us, but many other challenges face both houses in a choppy market,” says lawyer Thomas C. Danziger. “The next two weeks may well be a watershed moment for Sotheby’s.” (more…)