Is Paris really the top market place for photography?

[26/11/2002]

 

For nearly a year now, the reformed French auction houses have been trading in an open market and France has been winning market share in several segments, most notably in photography. But now, after a marathon week of auctions, timed to match with the city’s photography month, have the gains really been that impressive?New York’s turnover is still more than double that of Paris, thanks to its sales of contemporary prints, while Germany still dominates the market in volume terms.

But France has massively increased its share of the photography market compared to the 2000/2001 season. The 1,749 lots knocked down between 1 December 2001 and 30 November 2002 established France as number two for photography turnover, with 26.5% of total sales, compared to 9.6% the previous year. But the number of lots sold actually fell, by 3.7%, despite an extra 9% being put up for auction. The fall in transaction volumes has been driven by a massive rise in unsolds. Only 52% of photographs put up for auction this year have found a buyer. Collectors are at their most selective and demanding when it comes to the segment of classic photographs, where France is supposed to dominate. And it is true that nineteenth-century photography does form the backbone of most French photography auctions, such as those held by Sotheby’s and Christie’s in Paris. This can be a particularly lucrative sector, as we saw at the Jammes collection sale of 21-22 March 2002.

The sale, held at Sotheby’s, made history and not just because of the quality of the works on offer —a print from the first ever photograph, taken by Niecephore Niepce in 1825, was bought by the French government exercising its pre-emption right, after being auctioned — but also because it was the first time a Sotheby’s house had held a French Fine Art sale on French soil. The 484 lots put up in two days of sales generated EUR 9.26 million and it is still the year’s most lucrative auction. It was 16 November, though, before we saw the next such photography sale, this time mounted by Christie’s and timed to coincide with the Paris photography month and Salon Paris Photo. Christie’s used its first session to test the water for modern or contemporary images. Demand in France proved eclectic. This was just one of a large number of photography auctions that week. Another was a groundbreaking sale held by Thierry de Maigret on the theme of photojournalism. Groundbreaking, maybe, but also was something of a disappointment: 47% of the lots were bought in and 74% of those sold went for less than their low estimate. With buyers becoming thinner on the ground, professionals are starting to worry about the glut of images and requiring ever more stringent checks on the authenticity of what they are being offered. Thierry de Maigret’s other sale, with 340 nineteenth-century lots, was a fiasco. More than 83% of the pieces failed to find a buyer. True, the number of mid-range lots offered is attracting a rising number of collectors but tastes are also becoming more discerning. And the vast majority of transactions on the French market are modestly priced, 64% of lots sold in Paris photograph month went for less than EUR 1,500. Prestige sales such as those held by Sotheby’s and Christie’s are still too few and far between to make France the market leader.

The French market for photography may be livening up, but competition from across the Atlantic is also intensifying. Paris Photo now competes with the Armory Show Photography, as New York asserts its leadership in the discipline. The images on offer in New York are often top class and the show is dominated by contemporary work. In volume terms, the market is dominated by Germany which is holding ever more sales at houses such as Lempertz, Villa Grisebach, Bassenge and Schneider-Henn. The most popular theme is modernist photography. That said, the German market seems to be losing some of its vigour lately, selling 1,200 fewer lots in 2002 than in 2001. .