10th anniversary of Art Basel Miami Beach

Created in 2002, Art Basel Miami Beach (Florida, USA) has just celebrated its 10th anniversary.

FIAC 2011 – Notes from the fair

The 38th edition of the FIAC just ended. Nearly 21 countries represented, 168 galleries, close to 70 000 visitors… the 2011 FIAC was a tremendous success.

Hong Kong Art Fair – East and West

The ArtHK fair is impressive both in terms of size and diversity (260 galleries on three levels of the Convention & Exhibition Center and 38 countries represented)

Prestige sales in New York produce mixed results

Although generally considered safer (and less volatile) investments, the Modern Masters failed to generate the estimated results at Christie’s and Sotheby’s May sales in New York, generating a combined total of just $285.65m from their Impressionist & Modern Art sessions.

Contemporary art 2011: a new lease of life!

The austerity imposed by the crisis has been relegated to a distant memory. Collectors are back in the market, not just as observers but as active participants.

Contemporary Art sales in February: a bold selection with records expected

The big Contemporary Art sales begin just a few days after the Impressionist & Modern Art sales in London.

Paris / London – forthcoming Impressionist & Modern Art sales

Before the art world settles down to a quiet summer, we can look forward to some profitable auction results in London at the sale of the Polaroid collection (to pay its debts) on 21 and 22 June, the Impressionist & Modern Art sales of 23 and 24 June and the Contemporary Art sales of 28 and 29 June.

Contemporary Art sales in London: excellent results

With a total revenue figure up 255% compared with February 2009, Christie’s and Sotheby’s Contemporary Art sales have confirmed the recovery of the top end of the art market (combined revenue of $79,5m in February 2010 vs. £22.3m from the same sales in 2009).

Contemporary Art sales in London

Christie’s and Sotheby’s apparent price optimism for their Impressionist and Modern sales on 2 and 3 February 2010 is equally visible in the catalogues for their Contemporary Art sales on 10 and 11 February. The two majors are expecting a combined total of £69m from their evening sales, a figure which would represent a 54% more than February 2009 high estimate.

Maurizio Cattelan – The art of deception

Maurizio CATTELAN has made a fortune from displaying his cynicism about art and the art world and attacking its mechanics: he has opened a gallery in New York (the Wrong Gallery) that is always closed and never sells anything; he has set up a foundation allowing an artist to live for one year on condition that he/she exhibits nothing (Oblomov Foundation);

Paris resists crisis

Although the global art is in the midst of a crisis, Paris appears to be showing remarkable resistance: the number of auction sales and the volume of lots proposed has remained stable compared with 2008. Moreover, for the first quarter of 2009, the French capital posted a better overall revenue figure than either London or New York on the back of the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint-Laurent sale at the Grand Palais in February.

Artprice’s TOP 10 ranking: the art market heavyweights in 2008

Every year Artprice publishes its ranking of artists based on auction revenue. At the end of 2007 the figures were remarkable: the market’s Top 10 had generated a combined total of $1.8bn, up no less than 50% on the previous year’s total. In 2008 the total was $100m lower than for 2007 at $1.7bn, a figure representing 20% of the total global art auction market on 1.5% of its transactions.

Results of the Contemporary art sales: seriously off the boil

A week of sales in London Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips de Pury & Co tested the resilience of the contemporary art market which has been the most speculative and volatile compartment of the market over the last few years.

Contemporary art loses its shine

The market for contemporary art, the most speculative segment of the art market (+108% since 2003), has not withstood the shocks of the current financial turmoil. The results of the prestigious November sales in New York organised by Sotheby’s and Christie’s on 11 and 12 November are most discouraging.

‘Contemporary Art – evenings sales’ in London: £140 million

Having achieved a historic result in this sector on 16 May last in New York ($384,654,400), Christie’s opened the ball of the London contemporary art sales on 20 June with sale proceeds of £67,470,800 in 83 lots. The following day, Sotheby’s outstripped its competitor, selling 66 lots for a total of £72,427,600. In 2006, the total London proceeds of the two auction houses’ contemporary art evening sales amounted to close to £56 million.

Lucio Fontana : The quest for immateriality

Lucio FONTANA , who was born in Argentina to an Italian father, developed his artistic language in Italy from the Second World War onwards. In his quest for the immaterial, he acquired an Yves Klein blue monochrome in Milan in 1957. Fontana’s own works are also monochrome and perforated or slashed with a craft knife, in what he termed his concetti spaziali (spatial concepts) and tagli (slashes). The rents are an opening into the void; a lyrical gesture towards the infinite. Fontana was a very physical painter, attacking, piercing and lacerating the canvas in an attempt to discover what lies beneath: a gaping emptiness of immateriality. Fontana’s approach was not understood during his lifetime, but today collectors fight over his works. After the market slumped in the early 1990s, Fontana’s index has made constant gains over the last ten years, advancing some 330% since 1996.

A boom in the drawings market

For the past 15 years, collectors and curators of drawings have met at the Salon du Dessin during the last week of March. The salon that is to be held at the Palais de la Bourse in Paris will bring together some 30 galleries that will exhibit almost 1,000 drawings from all periods.

Auction data in 2005 showed that the drawings segment represented almost 24.4% of total Fine Art transactions and 12.7% of turnover (vs. 11.6% in 2004).

The top artists from the London summer auctions

Sotheby’s and Christie’s held their London Impressionist and Modern Art auctions on 23-24 June. With over 80% lots sold and a turnover of GBP 63 million at two evening sessions, the auctions were encouraging without being spectacular.

Nine contemporary artists make their mark in London

In the art market history is made every day. Any auction could see an artist’s work sell for a new all-time high. This year, in three days from 26 to 28 June, we saw no less than 71 record prices set for artists around the world. Nine of these were at the sales of contemporary art held by Sotheby’s and Christie’s in London.