In 2009, sales of high-quality works of contemporary artists at auction from Christie's and Sotheby's fell 75 percent. Large evening auctions, held in New York and London, brought 482.3 million dollars, while in 2008 this result was 1,97 billion. One of the main causes of decline is the fact that the auction houses have ceased to issue guarantees to sellers. In this regard, many have opted for private transactions. According to Christie's, in the first half of 2009, the total cost of all works of contemporary art, sold privately, exceeded the amount received at auction.

According to Artprice.com, in the period from 2003 to 2007 sales of Contemporary art in the sector grew more than eight times. In 2006 the volume of auction transactions amounted to 1.1 billion dollars, and in 2007 (an absolute record!) - 2,4 billion. The turn came in the fourth quarter of 2008, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. That autumn, Christie's lost on the guarantees of $ 50 million, Sotheby's - 40 million.

Evening bidding on a smaller scale, held in London and New York in the first six months of 2009, also showed no remarkable results. February auction of Christie's brought the total 8.4 million pounds sterling ( 13,6 million dollars) - the result at the 2004 level. It is worth mentioning that none of the work sold in this period did not reach the 10 million mark. A record high was sum of 7,9 million dollars, for which the left picture, David Hockney (David Hockney ) "A housewife from Beverly Hills" (May 13, Christie's, New York) .

To revive the auction market, houses have made the correction estimate:. In some cases, preliminary estimates had to be reduced by 50 percent, and even more. With this increased number of sold works. At London auction Christie's on June 30 , where buyers have found 35 of 40 lots, painting by Gerhard Richter (Gerhard Richter), entitled "1025 flowers" gone through the lower estimate - for 1.4 million pounds (2.3 million). In May 2008, the second very similar work has been on the auction Sotheby's 4,1 million dollars, when evaluating 4.6 million.

Gradually, the mood of market participants began to improve, in no small part due to the satisfactory results of major fairs Art Basel and Frieze. The last quarter of 2009 was marked by rising prices and quantities sold works. November 11 index Standard & Poor's 500 peaked at 13 months, three hours after closing the stock exchange in New York began evening auction of Contemporary Art Sotheby's , which brought 134.4 million dollars. This is more than the upper estimate (97.7 million dollars) and even than the result of similar auction held in November 2008 (125,1 million). Remained unsold, only two of the 54.

top lot was Andy Warhol's painting "200 dollar bills, pushed for 43,8 million dollars. She won first place in the list of the most expensive works of contemporary artists, sold in 2009. Estimate of previously owned by a London collector Karpidas Pauline (Pauline Karpidas), amounted to only 8.12 million.

«This is the most significant event of the year, - says head of the department of modern art Sotheby's Tobias Meyer ( Tobias Meyer). - Before [Trade November 11] did not sell 20 million more expensive ».

success of the new policy of auction houses (a decrease of preliminary estimates in order to increase the number of sales) has proved to owners of works, that the market for Contemporary art alive and well. Not in 2007, but still ... Now, as experts say auction houses, collectors have increasingly decided to put their treasures on public auction instead of selling them privately.

course , auction houses are aware of the fact that buyers are still very sensitive to prices. According to the same Mayer, estimate the time being should be conservative. Feeling of the market, he argues, will depend on what prices collectors are willing to deliver the product. "Overconfidence sellers may lead to that all stopped again" - warns Mayer.

Material prepared Yulia Maximova, AI

Source: bloomberg.com , artinvestment.ru

P. S. The site ARTinvestment.RU can also read:

Results-2009: What a year - so is coming

Figure Raphael became the most expensive piece of art 2009 year