Auction houses draw crowds for £100m art sales
London’s two biggest auction houses held season-opening sales of impressionist and modern art this week, as keen collectors brushed off the recession to bid for works by the likes of Monet, Klimt and Picasso, raising close to £100m (€113m) in the process.
The auction room at Christie’s in St James’s Park was overflowing with collectors last night and a flurry of bids from telephones and the floor ensured the privately-owned company sold 83% of paintings on offer, with a total value of £63.4m being raised from 39 lots. Christies had expected to raise between £58m and £85m from the sale of 47 lots.
Despite the positive turnout, the figure paled in comparison to last year’s pre-recession sale, which drew £105.4m against an estimate of between £89m and £126.2m. The number of lots on offer in 2008 was 131 but Christie’s reduced the number this year over concerns about demand.
Nevertheless, the general feeling at last night’s auction was positive. The top price paid was for Claude Monet’s Dans la Prairie, which sold for £11.2m, including the buyer’s premium. The 1876 work had been expected to fetch £15m.
Les Deux Filles, a rare double portrait by Amedeo Modigliani, surpassed its high estimate of £5.5m to raise £6.5m.
Giovanna Bertazzoni, director and head of impressionist and modern art at Christie's, said the good results were partly due to the fact that many of the pieces had not come under the hammer for 30 years. She added that Christie's has been marketing this sale since June last year, drumming up interest from its best consignors and buyers.
Christie’s auction followed on the heels of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern art sale on Tuesday night, which raised £32.5m.
London-listed Sotheby's auction, which featured works by Pablo Picasso, Gustv Klimt, Edgar Degas and Marc Chagall, was eagerly awaited as the bellwether for the art market this year, after Sotheby's and Christie's suffered disappointing sales in 2008, especially for contemporary and modern art.
Although the figure fell shy of the group’s £40.6m to £55.6m estimates, and well short of last year’s £116m figure, Sotherby’s managed to raise over £13m for a single work.
Edgar Degas’s posthumous bronze Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans, raised £13.3m including a buyer's premium after a high estimate of £12m.
It was sold to a Japanese collector bidding by telephone. The piece was last sold at Sotheby’s London in February 2004 for £5m to Sir John Madejski, owner of Reading football Club and philanthropist.
While Madjeski may have made a good return on his investment, others didn’t fare as well. A Francis Picabia, Lunis, went to a telephone bidder for £529,250 after an estimate of £450 to £650,000.
Although well within the estimate range, the work last sold at Sotheby’s London in February 2006 for £1m.
The auction houses and market sources agreed that despite raising much less than previous years, the sales struck a positive note for the art market, and shows a correction is taking place and confidence can still be found.
Melanie Clore, co-chairman, Impressionist and Modern Art, at the auction house said: “This evening’s sale was the first test of the market in this field this year and we’re delighted that the strategy we employed in assembling a tightly edited sale achieved the highest sell-through rate since last summer.
“This is clear evidence that the market continues to respond to quality and rarity.”
--write to twilkinson@efinancialnews.com
Claude Monet’s Dans la Prairie (1876) sold for £11.2m
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