Egon SCHIELE (1890-1918)

[24/03/2005]

 

A major exhibition opened on 25 March 2005 at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam on the work of the Viennese Expressionist Egon Schiele (1890-1918). Nearly one hundred pieces, including some twenty paintings, are being featured at the Netherlands’ first-ever retrospective of the artist.
Although Schiele died at the age of 28, he became an important figure in both art history and the art market. In 2004, he ranked 20th in the Artprice ranking of artists by turnover (download this ranking). It should be noted that in the space of a few years, Schiele managed to create over 3,200 works of art.

Egon SCHIELE (1890-1918) : 
Artist benchmark 2004 by Artprice.com
Value
in 2004
Annual
growth
Price index (base1997 = $100)
259
-5%
Annual turnover
$ 21,587,154
-4%
Number of lots sold
37
+76%
% of lots unsold (excluding prints)
27%
+27%
Rank of artist
20
-5

Drawings and watercolours account for almost 60% of Schiele’s works that are auctioned. Expect to pay anywhere from EUR 60,000 to EUR 90,000 for a pencil drawing and more than EUR 200,000 for a watercolour. Prices for Schiele’s works are increasing, and bids are often higher than the estimates for his best pieces. Last month for example, his drawing “The Actress Marga Boerner” (1917) fetched GBP 180,000, i.e. twice Sotheby’s high estimate. According to Artprice data, the price of his works on paper actually doubled between 1998 and 2004, with nearly 50 of these pieces auctioned every year.

His paintings are becoming harder and harder to come by. Only 31 of his paintings have come up for sale since 1990, and in 2004, not a single Schiele painting went to auction. The record for the artist was set with “Town and River”, a 1916 landscape sold by Sotheby’s on 23 June 2003 for GBP 11.3 million, which was the highest hammer price in Europe in 2003.