Showing posts with label Bloomberg News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bloomberg News. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Warhol Price Slashed as Art Basel Fights Slump With Bargains
Even the works of Andy Warhol, one of the most prolific artists of this generation are feeling the current economic turbulence .
At Basel, the rule of the day is bargain basement discounts . Not even Naomi Campbell and Bratt Pitt presence are saving the day. Please read article by Scott Reyburn for Bloomberg News. In addition please click link at the bottom for another article from Basel.
Enjoy!
By Scott Reyburn
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Prices of work by artists such as Andy Warhol are being trimmed at this year’s Art Basel as dealers aim to beat the biggest slump in the market since 1991.
The Swiss-based art fair, the world’s largest, opens to VIP visitors today and will feature almost 300 international galleries showing more than 2,500 artists.
“The idea of bringing a lot of expensive pieces to Basel and just flogging them isn’t going to work this year,” Adam Sheffer, a director at the New York dealers Cheim & Read, said in an interview. “There are fewer buyers around and they’re looking for bargains.”
Dealers lowered expectations after Christie’s International and Sotheby’s respective $93.7 million and $47 million totals at the May contemporary-art auctions in New York were 72 percent and 87 percent down on last year. The average auction price of contemporary art has fallen 76.2 percent since May 2008, the London-based company ArtTactic said after those sales.
New York gallery Deitch Projects will offer at Basel a small 1964 Warhol silkscreen self-portrait based on photo-booth shots, priced at $675,000. The painting is on consignment from fashion designer Stephen Sprouse, who was given the work by the artist, gallery founder Jeffrey Deitch said in an interview.
“It’s priced to sell,” he said in a telephone interview. “Last year I would have asked at least $1 million.
‘‘There’s now much less going on at the $5 million-plus level. A lot of the price gains in 2007 have been reversed and we’re back to 2005 levels.”
Satellite Fairs
Last year Art Basel attracted 60,000 visitors, according to the organizers. Like London’s Frieze Art Fair, the event doesn’t release sales figures. Thousands of other works will be on show at Basel’s satellite fairs such as VOLTA, SCOPE and LISTE.
Cheim & Read will show photographs by William Eggleston and pieces in various media by Jack Pierson for less than $250,000, Sheffer said. Last year the gallery displayed works with seven- figure price tags, he said.
Last year’s Art Basel -- where Roman Abramovich and Brad Pitt were spotted among the visitors -- achieved confirmed sales of $8 million for a Takashi Murakami sculpture, $12 million for a Lucian Freud painting and $14 million for an Alberto Giacometti sculpture.
Swiss-based UBS AG, the world’s biggest wealth manager, has been the main sponsor of Art Basel since 1994. In April, the bank announced that it would be shutting down its division advising private clients on investing in art after posting a 20.9 billion-Swiss franc ($18.3 billion) loss for 2008, the biggest in Switzerland’s history. UBS’s decision to shut the division won’t affect its sponsorship of the event, which will only expire in 2011, according to the bank.
Levin’s View
“In this kind of environment there will be two Art Basels,” Todd Levin, director of New York-based advisers, Levin Art Group, said in a telephone interview. “There will be the art on show in dealers’ booths, plus works being offered more discreetly on consignment from collectors in store rooms. This year it will be more like a normal trade fair,” said Levin, who has been visiting Art Basel for 30 years.
Among the works priced at the fair in seven figures will be a new multi faceted stainless-steel mirror sculpture by Anish Kapoor, offered at the booth of the London-based Lisson Gallery at more than 1 million pounds ($1.6 million). The 7-foot-wide untitled sculpture is one of the Indian-born British artist’s most technically ambitious pieces to date, said Nicholas Logsdail, the gallery’s director.
Kapoor’s Prices
Kapoor is one of the few contemporary artists whose works have continued to sell for consistent prices at auctions and art fairs since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings in September 2008.
“His work has a timeless quality,” Logsdail said in a telephone interview. “We’ve also kept our sterling prices the same. This means that anyone whose wealth is in dollars or euros gets a significant discount.”
This is the fourth art-market recession Logsdail has experienced and it’s “probably the worst,” he said.
“The recovery in the stock markets has helped. We’re back at the levels of business we were doing four years ago. And that’s not bad,” said Logsdail.
Exhibitors at last year’s Art Basel said a drop in U.S. visitor numbers was compensated by buying from the emerging economies of Russia, Asia and the Middle East. Forbes Russia said in April that Russia’s 100 richest people lost 73 percent of their wealth in 2008. Last month Knight Frank LLP said house prices in Dubai fell 32 percent in the 12 months ended March 31.
“Now everyone is affected,” said Sheffer.
Korean Artist
New York dealers Lehmann Maupin will be showing works by the Korean artist Lee Bul priced from $60,000 to $150,000.
“The market isn’t dead,” Rachel Lehmann, a director of the gallery, said in an interview. “We’re feeling some demand from Asian clients and from parts of Europe. The pure New York market has really gone, though. I’ve spoken to several New York collectors who aren’t going to Basel this year.”
Several U.S. dealers are also giving the Swiss city a miss in 2009. R 20th Century, Moss and Yoshii Gallery are among half a dozen New York-based specialists who won’t be exhibiting at this year’s Design Miami/Basel fair, which previewed yesterday.
The design fair, featuring 27 exhibitors, has transferred from Basel’s Markthalle (where the VOLTA art fair is now installed) to Hall 5 of the city’s main exhibition complex, closer to Art Basel.
“I can understand why other American galleries aren’t coming,” said Cristina Grajales, a New York-based exhibitor. “We have a world crisis and everyone has to be careful.”
This year’s Design Miami/Basel will feature a special exhibition of works by Marc Newson, said the organizers.
At Phillips de Pury’s design auction in London in May, a Newson “Lockheed Lounge” chair fetched a record 1.1 million pounds ($1.6 million). A number of other works by once- fashionable names in the “design art” market failed to sell.
(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer on the story: Scott Reyburn in Basel at sreyburn@hotmail.com.
Last Updated: June 8, 2009 19:00 EDT
By Scott Reyburn
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Prices of work by artists such as Andy Warhol are being trimmed at this year’s Art Basel as dealers aim to beat the biggest slump in the market since 1991.
The Swiss-based art fair, the world’s largest, opens to VIP visitors today and will feature almost 300 international galleries showing more than 2,500 artists.
“The idea of bringing a lot of expensive pieces to Basel and just flogging them isn’t going to work this year,” Adam Sheffer, a director at the New York dealers Cheim & Read, said in an interview. “There are fewer buyers around and they’re looking for bargains.”
Dealers lowered expectations after Christie’s International and Sotheby’s respective $93.7 million and $47 million totals at the May contemporary-art auctions in New York were 72 percent and 87 percent down on last year. The average auction price of contemporary art has fallen 76.2 percent since May 2008, the London-based company ArtTactic said after those sales.
New York gallery Deitch Projects will offer at Basel a small 1964 Warhol silkscreen self-portrait based on photo-booth shots, priced at $675,000. The painting is on consignment from fashion designer Stephen Sprouse, who was given the work by the artist, gallery founder Jeffrey Deitch said in an interview.
“It’s priced to sell,” he said in a telephone interview. “Last year I would have asked at least $1 million.
‘‘There’s now much less going on at the $5 million-plus level. A lot of the price gains in 2007 have been reversed and we’re back to 2005 levels.”
Satellite Fairs
Last year Art Basel attracted 60,000 visitors, according to the organizers. Like London’s Frieze Art Fair, the event doesn’t release sales figures. Thousands of other works will be on show at Basel’s satellite fairs such as VOLTA, SCOPE and LISTE.
Cheim & Read will show photographs by William Eggleston and pieces in various media by Jack Pierson for less than $250,000, Sheffer said. Last year the gallery displayed works with seven- figure price tags, he said.
Last year’s Art Basel -- where Roman Abramovich and Brad Pitt were spotted among the visitors -- achieved confirmed sales of $8 million for a Takashi Murakami sculpture, $12 million for a Lucian Freud painting and $14 million for an Alberto Giacometti sculpture.
Swiss-based UBS AG, the world’s biggest wealth manager, has been the main sponsor of Art Basel since 1994. In April, the bank announced that it would be shutting down its division advising private clients on investing in art after posting a 20.9 billion-Swiss franc ($18.3 billion) loss for 2008, the biggest in Switzerland’s history. UBS’s decision to shut the division won’t affect its sponsorship of the event, which will only expire in 2011, according to the bank.
Levin’s View
“In this kind of environment there will be two Art Basels,” Todd Levin, director of New York-based advisers, Levin Art Group, said in a telephone interview. “There will be the art on show in dealers’ booths, plus works being offered more discreetly on consignment from collectors in store rooms. This year it will be more like a normal trade fair,” said Levin, who has been visiting Art Basel for 30 years.
Among the works priced at the fair in seven figures will be a new multi faceted stainless-steel mirror sculpture by Anish Kapoor, offered at the booth of the London-based Lisson Gallery at more than 1 million pounds ($1.6 million). The 7-foot-wide untitled sculpture is one of the Indian-born British artist’s most technically ambitious pieces to date, said Nicholas Logsdail, the gallery’s director.
Kapoor’s Prices
Kapoor is one of the few contemporary artists whose works have continued to sell for consistent prices at auctions and art fairs since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings in September 2008.
“His work has a timeless quality,” Logsdail said in a telephone interview. “We’ve also kept our sterling prices the same. This means that anyone whose wealth is in dollars or euros gets a significant discount.”
This is the fourth art-market recession Logsdail has experienced and it’s “probably the worst,” he said.
“The recovery in the stock markets has helped. We’re back at the levels of business we were doing four years ago. And that’s not bad,” said Logsdail.
Exhibitors at last year’s Art Basel said a drop in U.S. visitor numbers was compensated by buying from the emerging economies of Russia, Asia and the Middle East. Forbes Russia said in April that Russia’s 100 richest people lost 73 percent of their wealth in 2008. Last month Knight Frank LLP said house prices in Dubai fell 32 percent in the 12 months ended March 31.
“Now everyone is affected,” said Sheffer.
Korean Artist
New York dealers Lehmann Maupin will be showing works by the Korean artist Lee Bul priced from $60,000 to $150,000.
“The market isn’t dead,” Rachel Lehmann, a director of the gallery, said in an interview. “We’re feeling some demand from Asian clients and from parts of Europe. The pure New York market has really gone, though. I’ve spoken to several New York collectors who aren’t going to Basel this year.”
Several U.S. dealers are also giving the Swiss city a miss in 2009. R 20th Century, Moss and Yoshii Gallery are among half a dozen New York-based specialists who won’t be exhibiting at this year’s Design Miami/Basel fair, which previewed yesterday.
The design fair, featuring 27 exhibitors, has transferred from Basel’s Markthalle (where the VOLTA art fair is now installed) to Hall 5 of the city’s main exhibition complex, closer to Art Basel.
“I can understand why other American galleries aren’t coming,” said Cristina Grajales, a New York-based exhibitor. “We have a world crisis and everyone has to be careful.”
This year’s Design Miami/Basel will feature a special exhibition of works by Marc Newson, said the organizers.
At Phillips de Pury’s design auction in London in May, a Newson “Lockheed Lounge” chair fetched a record 1.1 million pounds ($1.6 million). A number of other works by once- fashionable names in the “design art” market failed to sell.
(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer on the story: Scott Reyburn in Basel at sreyburn@hotmail.com.
Last Updated: June 8, 2009 19:00 EDT
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Job Art Losses Continue-Sotheby’s Sacks Auctioneer, Furniture Experts in U.S. Offices
The Art Auction houses started 2009 leaving staffers out of the job.
ART Fag City reported on Christie's chopping heads without any warning and now it is Sotheby's turn. Please read article below written by Linsday Pollock of Bloomberg News.
I want the new government to take power and turn this Economy around. I fear for myself, my dear fellow artists, Museums, Non For Profit Art Organizations and the Art business in general. Then, I see all in the news all the home foreclosures and people losing everything because some one's greed and wonder ...Had we been too Greedy?
And the answer is yes we have. Myself included...
Sotheby’s Sacks Auctioneer, Furniture Experts in U.S. Offices
By Lindsay Pollock
Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Sotheby’s has fired about 60 staffers in the U.S. since mid-December, including an auctioneer who was on the rise and an impressionist and modern-art scholar who logged 35 years at the company, according to six current and former employees.
Among those let go are Christopher Gaillard, the head of the contemporary-print department who was considered a rising star as an auctioneer, and John Tancock, the art scholar and a senior vice president.
Sotheby’s staff reductions have cut across departments, seniority levels and offices, according to these employees. Longtime experts in ceramics and French and English furniture were among those fired. About half of the nine jobs in the Los Angeles office were terminated, as well as staffers in the Chicago and Miami offices.
Sotheby’s spokeswoman Diana Phillips declined to comment.
Rival Christie’s International began cutting jobs on Monday.
“The recent wave of terminations at the auction houses reflects the ongoing contraction of the art market,” said art lawyer Peter Stern of McLaughlin & Stern, LLP.
Sotheby’s hasn’t released its fourth-quarter earnings figures yet. Sales during that quarter are usually profitable for auction houses. At Sotheby’s major Nov. 11 contemporary-art sale, about a third of the 63 lots went unsold.
Employees in Sotheby’s North American offices totaled 605, and 1,555 worldwide, as of Dec. 31, 2007, according to the latest company filings. Sotheby’s declined to provide more recent numbers.
Sotheby’s said it expected $5 million in restructuring charges and projected $7 million in savings from salaries and costs for 2009, according to a filing in December.
Christie’s Firings
Christie’s has cut about 80 employees in the New York office, said one staffer who was let go and asked not to be identified. The cuts were made across departments, including contemporary art, 19th-century art, prints and administrative.
“Virtually all departments and geographies are affected by the reorganization,” Christie’s spokesman Toby Usnik said in an e-mail statement. He declined to provide details.
The auction houses are accustomed to paring back. In 2001 and 2002, in the wake of a price-fixing scandal, Sotheby’s cut around 400 positions, or 14 percent. Christie’s axed 15 percent of its staff.
To contact the reporter on the story: Lindsay Pollock in New York at lindsaypollock@yahoo.com;
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
