Modern Art - 2008: minus 17 per cent
ARTinvestment.RU   08 декабря 2008

Bloomberg summarized bidding works of modern art Sotheby's and Christie's for a year

It is estimated the agency Bloomberg, the size of the total profit for the year 2008 from Sotheby's and Christie's as a result of the works of top contemporary art auctions in London and New York have fallen by 17 per cent. The two leading auction houses in general were able to make this year a little less than two billion dollars (including taxes). Last year the figure was 2.4 billion dollars and more than two times higher than the result of 2006, 1.1 billion dollars.

If you consider the time period from 2003 to 2007, according to the French resource Artprice, the volume of auction sales of contemporary art worldwide has grown more than 8 times! The decline began only at the end of this year, when collectors and art dealers who advance the financial crisis, were not ready to maintain high prices.

«The next year, likely prepodneset a lot of surprises», - said in a telephone interview to Bloomberg chap London Fine Art Fund Philip Hoffman (Philip Hoffman). «People are unlikely to exhibit works for sale. The volume of works in the auction can drop by 30 or 40 per cent. And it seriously zadenet auction houses », - said Hoffman, who worked in the house Christie's at the time of the last major downturn in the art market in 1990.

collector from Dallas Howard Rakhiv (Howard Rachofsky) believes that in 2009 demand will be uneven. Despite financial difficulties, «for the new and good works of outstanding authors do not mind paying any money», - he said.

The current deepening international economic crisis triggered a sharp drop in demand in the last quarter of 2008. In November evening auction Sotheby's and Christie's in New York, which were exhibited works of contemporary art, had 125.1 and 113.6 million dollars respectively, and in both case, being lower than preliminary estimates. In general, the two auction houses are not able to sell almost a third of the lots. Last year, at the same auction organizers managed to gain 315.9 and 325 million dollars.

As for the November auction Phillips de Pury , who recently acquired Russian Mercury Group , their total was 9.6 million dollars. This has been even less than a quarter of the 42.3 million dollars - a sum that the auction house irreplaceable in 2007.

In the official report Phillips de Pury, which was released on 24 November, said that since the autumn season of trades in London and New York, the company decided to abandon the safeguards in the displayed work. Therefore, it is not in debt, despite the fact that a large portion of works has not been sold. As the head of Simon de Piura (Simon de Pury): «We have decided to abolish the safeguards in the year earlier. And it is justified ».

However, not all were so insightful. According to a statement made by Sotheby's for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, issued on 14 November, the auction house lost in the assurances after recent auctions of contemporary art have 10.6 million dollars. Thus, total losses Sotheby's two months already reached 52.6 million dollars. As for Christie's, at auction on 12 November in New York was unable to sell the 12 lots, the auction house to guarantee a minimum value of a total of 48 million dollars.

This year was not entirely successful, and the October auction. During the art fair Frieze, at Christie's auction on 19 October managed to sell only 55 percent of lots in the amount of 32 million pounds, while the lower estimeyte at 57 million. And the results earlier Sotheby's , amounted to 22 million pounds, while the preliminary estimate of the minimum was 30.6 million.

In general, this year's London auction of modern art Sotheby's and Christie's, held in February, June - July and October, brought 508 million pounds, up 11 per cent more than in 2007. However, the results of the New York bid, which shall be held annually in May and November, amounted to 1.2 billion dollars, which is 40 percent below last year's performance.

But «the situation on the art market is not as bad as it was in the early 1990's. In the worst condition of the economy », - believes Philip Hoffman of the Fine Art Fund. According to him, now contemporary art has become more fashionable than it was at that time. And that is why this market will certainly retain their positions.

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Source: bloomberg.com , artinvestment.ru