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David Benrimon Fine Art Newsletter - April, 2009
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Dear Friends,
Welcome to the April newsletter of David Benrimon Fine Art LLC. We wish everyone a happy and joyous holiday season. May everyone have a Happy Easter and a Kosher Passover.
SPRING IS IN THE AIR!
All the best,
David Benrimon
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| 2008 End results |
The results are in, and while 2008 was a terrible economic year the art world proved to have some resiliency. The biggest surprise of the year is that ArtPrice now stated that London and New York share the top spot for biggest market share. New York had held the top stop for a couple of years and will probably come back to its premier post given the drop of the pound.
As if it even needed to be stated, Pablo Picasso was the top artist by auction turnover in 2008. The top ten were rounded out with some newcomers: Bacon, Warhol, Hirst (thank you Russian purchasers at the September Sotheby’s sale), Monet, Giacometti, Richter, Degas, Fontana and Yves Klein. 2008 Ending results-PDF
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| Deaccession Debate Continues |
In the middle of March, the New York State Legislature took up the issue of museums selling art to cover their operating expenses. A bill was drafted by Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky that would make it illegal for New York Museums to sell artwork or museum pieces to cover their operating expenses. While it is refreshing that the Legislature has taken up this issue, the MTA subway and bus budget, and serious New York budget deficit should be top priorities. Museums looking to deaccession will find other ways of selling their art even if a law does pass. more...
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| Will Phillips de Pury Survive the Recession? |
Phillips received its emergency bail-out money courtesy of Russian-based Mercury group for supposedly $60 million, roughly the cost of a nice Francis Bacon painting. But is this enough for Phillips to survive? They have carved out a niche as being the super-contemporary auction house where one can barely hear the charming Simon de Pury above the venerable buzz of the auction room. It has even been rumored that during auctions more deals are done by the peanut gallery than the auction house. more...
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| Death of the Guarantee |
All 3 major auction houses have now been burned by guarantees. In the quarterly conference call Sotheby’s had with its shareholders and financial analysts, Sotheby’s acknowledged rather large losses. In mid-March, Christie’s was sued for $40 million for not living up to its minimum selling price for the 1964 Freud, “Study for Self Portrait,” formerly owned by the Weiss Family Art LLC. We can safely assume guarantees by the auction houses are a thing of the past.
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| Maastricht |
Important rare works are selling but the middle market continues to flounder. Works by Rubens, Basquiat and Bourgeois all sold for fantastic sums but after the first day of the fair the buyers were more hesitant and despite many booths dropping prices sales were slow. Many dealers brought out strong, exceptional works and there was a great deal of variety between the numerous antiquity, modern and contemporary dealers who were complimented by the newest addition to the fair TEFAF Design which highlighted important modern furniture. Many attributed what action there was at TEFAF to museums and institutional buying and a return of the old money crowd who were previously pushed out by the young hedge fund and investment bankers. more...
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| Art Financing |
In late February the rise of individual collectors, galleries and artists borrowing against their art made the front page of the New York Times and banks were said to be growing this practices. It seemed like the stories of household-name artists like Julian Schnabel and Annie Leibovitz, both of whom were profiled in the story, were indicative of many other artists and that banks and private equity groups (read loan sharks) were going to benefit greatly from the recession. But strangely enough, UBS who was one of the first banks to introduce art banking and has closed that operation. What does the future of art financing have in store for us?
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Asian Art Week in Hong Kong
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Sotheby’s took its shows on the road to Hong Kong for Asian Art Week. As expected, prices dropped significantly but the top Asian artists still commanded impressive sums. The Fine Chinese Paintings sale brought in $16.6M and Zhang Xiogang had an untitled painting sell for over $615,000. Yue Minjun, Cai Guo Qiang (one of the artistic directors for the Opening ceremonies of the China hosted Summer Olympics of 2008) and Zeng Fanzhi continue to attract attention and their top works reached the pre-sale estimates. |
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