Prices in the Art Market Have Plummeted: 9 Things You Need to Know About the Matisse, the Picasso &a
In 2002, The Tate Modern brought together the masterpieces of two modern at monarchs - Picasso and Matisse. Thirty groupings of paintings and sculpture went head to head in contrasting, comparing and dutifully realigning the balance between the two. Deemed the ‘final-show-down’ - it seems competition has far-reached stylistic quality into sales. As world’s leading auction houses face a slump in sales and profits, the two giants will inevitably go head to head again with some of the highest noted numbers. Here’s what you need to know the peak in prices:
1) Collectors are becoming selective:
Dr Bendor Grosvenor, the British art dealer and art historian, said: “It looks like the top end of the modern and contemporary market, buyers are beginning to look a little bit wary.” Sothebys sold Picasso’s 1935 ‘Tete de Femme’ £18.9m last month, almost a heft ten million less than the £28m for which the seller paid in 2013.
2) From Matisse to Giacometti, the top end of the modern and contemporary market is falling:
Matisse’s ‘La Leçon de piano’ sold for £10.8m million, well below its £12-18m estimate at Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art sale. A Giacometti painting which had been bought just before the credit crunch for £1.6 million was estimated at £1.8-2.5 million at Christie’s but failed to find a buyer.
3) There is a radically desperate race between auction houses:
Sotheby’s gambled on taking forward the largest sole guarantee in auction history in haste to beat Christie’s to the collection of its former chairman A. Alfred Taubman. Doing so meant forgoing any commission on sold works until it reached $515 million while promising to cover any shortfall. When the sale fell-through, the company was over-exposed, losing $12 million.
4) The art market is NOT linear:
The biggest cause of disappointed investments is the idea that a contemporary trophy of today will remain or even exceed its value had a century from now. Artists who fetch the highest amount in the contemporary market today, can be reduced to effectively nothing relatively-speaking in 50 years time.
5) Master pieces ≠ higher sales:
Christie’s International released a report documenting a 5% fall in annual sales. Though these figures still represent Christie’s second-best performance ever, the world’s leading auction house in terms of revenue openly admitted that it’s strategy to focus on hosting unique auctions revolving around masterpieces had led to its decline in private sales.
6) What’s losing?
At Christie’s, the Old Masters, 19th Century and Russian art category recorded a 37% loss, and a 14% loss in postwar and contemporary auctions.
7) What else is going down?
Staff defections. Both Alex Rotter and David Norman, company executives will be leaving after a combined 47 years at Sothebys.
8) What does this mean?
According to the Guardian, their exit marks a broad exodus of established art expertise as Sotheby’s attempts to compete with arch-rival Christie’s aggressive penetration of Asian markets.
9) Final words?
Sothebey’s Tad Smith, also chief executive of the Madison Square Garden says he feels “confident in our future and managing the business through uncertainty with a clear eye on creating value now for shareholders and clients”.
