Posted on Nov 22, 2021, 5:26 PMUpdated Nov 22, 2021, 5:27 PM
For those who still doubted it, these last two weeks of auctions of modern and contemporary art in New York will have demonstrated the insatiable appetite of the great collectors. Because these 2.5 billion dollars of works exchanged on the occasion of these autumn sales constitute the top of the basket: works whose prices often line up seven to eight figures.
Sotheby’s comes out on top of this merciless competition that pits it against Christie’s each year, totaling $ 1.33 billion in sales: a historic record for the house of Patrick Drahi, with 96% of lots sold, bidders of 48 different countries. Proof that the pandemic, by accelerating digital habits, has broadened the ball of suitors.
Image fallout
Its rival, the house owned by the Pinault family, is also doing very well with $ 1.1 billion, although the 332 million from the Cox collection fell short of the 676 million from the Macklowe collection. picked up by Sotheby’s. But this is only the tip of the iceberg.
For the submerged part, not sure that the most profitable collection is the one awarded the most expensive, as the guarantees and concessions granted are important when we want to play in the court of the very big sellers. But in terms of image impact, it is undoubtedly a good media stunt for the Sotheby’s brand.
Thirty records
These two weeks have generated around thirty records for the two houses, with artists such as Jackson Pollock for Number 17 (53 million) and Frida Kahlo for her self-portrait (34.9 million) at Sotheby’s, or Caillebotte for a Young Man at his Window (46 million) and Van Gogh for Wheatstacks (31 million) for Christie’s.
The outsider Philipps posted the best sale in its history at $ 139 million. And this despite the underperformance of Bacon which, at 33 million, did not reach its low estimate of 35 million.
Irruption of cryptocurrencies
The sequence was also illustrated by the irruption of cryptocurrency in auctions, especially for works by Banksy, while the artists of NFT posted good performances like Beeple, at the origin of the craze. for these non-fungible tokens, including the hybrid installation “Human one”, estimated 15 million, sold 29 million.
The group of 17,000 cryptocurrency investors, who had raised 40 million to acquire from Sotheby’s the Constitution of the United States of 1787, had, on the other hand, had to bow to the billionaire of a Chicago hedge fund, Kenneth Griffin, which outbid to 43.2 million. The legendary document will be loaned to an American museum.
–
