Autumn sales 2010: return of competition!

The New York November 2010 sales doubled the revenue total from the same sales in 2009.
This year’s NY sales generated a total of 1.1 billion dollars (vs. $524m a year earlier) and five of them crossed the $100m threshold (excluding fees) compared with just one last year (Impressionist & Modern – Sotheby’s). Such high totals have not been seen since May 2008 ($1.5M).
Among the noteworthy aspects of these autumn sales were a) the best sales total ever for the auctioneer Phillips de Pury & Company, b) bought-in rates below 10% for Sotheby’s and Christie’s Contemporary Art sales and c) the return of guaranteed prices for the top signatures in Contemporary art.

The Warhol effect
Having fuelled the appetites of millionaire collectors, Andy WARHOL has become a veritable benchmark for the art market. In fact, it was Warhol who led the way out of the recent crisis in Post-war and Contemporary art when, on 11 November 2009, his 200 One Dollar Bills easily tripled its high estimate with a winning bid of $39m at Sotheby’s New York (Warhol’s auction revenue fell by roughly 50% between 2008 and 2009). Over the past year, Warhol’s success (his work is now considered the safest investment in Contemporary art) has spread to other riskier and more recent signatures.
Between October and November 2010, Warhol’s works generated no less than 24 results above the $1m line and one of these, a major work from the Jose Mugrabi collection, was posted as the top masterpiece of the prestige Phillips sale organised by Phillipe Ségalot: Men in her life sailed past its high estimate of $52m to a winning bid of $56.5m, Warhol’s second best-ever auction result. Indeed, this single result produced nearly half of the revenue total from the Phillips sales on 8 November and it is therefore thanks to Andy Warhol (and the Carte Blanche operation orchestrated by Philippe Segalot) that Phillips posted its best-ever sales total (more than $119m), $7m better than the company’s previous best recorded on 7 May 2001 for an Impressionist & Modern sale in New York.
Among the other big Warhol results from these sales, there was $31.5m for his large Coca-Cola bottle (9 November – Sotheby’s) – $6.5m above the high estimate – and $21.25m for his Pop, Big Campbell’s Soup Can with Can Opener at Christie’s. However the latter result fell short of the estimate range by roughly the same margin.
Two days after the splendid performance of Men in her life, Roy LICHTENSTEIN confirmed Pop art’s pre-eminence on the market when his 1964 Ohhh…Alright… fetched $38m at Christie’s. Like Men in her life, the Lichtenstein work came from a particularly high-profile collection, namely that of Steve Wynn.

Contemporary art beats the results from Impressionist and Modern Art
Contemporary art has recovered its lost vigour. Remember that it was the worst-hit segment of the art market with revenue totals down 62% between 2008 and 2009. This month, the segment has generated more for Christie’s and Sotheby’s that their Impressionist & Modern sales which offered plenty of masterpieces.
In effect, the return of the big Contemporary names to the auction limelight was already apparent on 14 October 2010: the star lot of Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art sale was Damien HIRST’s largest-ever Butterfly painting, never before presented at auction. Although the hammer price fell substantially short of the low estimate, the work entitled I am Become Death, Shatterer of Worlds (213.4 x 533.4 cm) generously overshot the £1m threshold when it fetched £1.735m (vs. a pre-sale estimate of £2.5-3.5m) and produced the best result of the entire sale.
This month, Damien Hirst, Takashi MURAKAMI, Maurizio CATTELAN, Cindy SHERMAN and Jeff KOONS were all back vying for the top results: Philippe Ségalot’s Carte Blanche sale at Phillips generated seven-figure results for two sculptures by Maurizio Cattelan (Charlie, $2.6m and Stephanie, $2.1m), one work by Takashi Murakami (Miss ko², $6m) and a new record for Cindy Sherman whose Untitled #153 fetched $2.4m. Richard PRINCE – who signed just one result above the million-dollar line in November 2009 – saw four of his works fetch seven-figure results on 9 and 10 November at Christie’s and Sotheby’s (Untitled (Check Painting) #12, White Woman, De Kooning, Untitled).

And as regards Jeff Koons, Christie’s decided to take the risk of offering a major and highly market-sensitive work by the artist, his Balloon Flower (Blue). At $15m, the immense blue sculpture generated the artist’s third best auction result. However this result was still 8 million dollars below the price paid for Balloon Flower (Magenta) in 2008 (£11.5m at Christie’s – London).
In fact, during the recent New York sales, Jeff Koons’ works generated a total of $21m compared with a personal revenue total of $42m in November 2007. He also saw $8m to $11m (based on pre-sale estimates) of his works bought in. One of these was his Caterpillar Ladder, a star lot of the Phillips sale estimated at $5.5m – $7.5m.

These generally good results somewhat overshadow the not-so-impressive unsold rates for the lower priced works (more than 39% at Christie’s on 11 November and 42% at Sotheby’s the night before). However, according to the auction houses, the million-plus results reflect the overall trend and Sotheby’s share price is still rising (close to $45 compared with $6.89 in February 2009) while Artprice’s art market confidence index, the AMCI, is still in the green. The successes at the top end of market act as a stimulus for the art market as a whole and the declared purchase intentions are today above the level of 71%.