Comment: Art market sends mixed messages
Records are set in New York but questions remain over the appetite of rich collectors
Relief will be spreading through the art market following this week's New York sales of impressionist and modern work by auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's.
Records were set for big name artists including Fernand Léger ($39m) and Edvard Munch ($21m) at Sotheby's and Claude Monet ($41.5m), Alberto Giacometti ($27.5m) and Auguste Rodin ($19m) at Christie's.
It proved the top end of the art market remains insulated from the deterioriating economic backdrop in the US and Europe.
One of the most encouraging details was the fact two-thirds of the lots sold at Sotheby's last night went to American buyers.
The general view had been that US-based buyers would pull back this year, as the credit crunch and the weak dollar hit home, with Middle Eastern, Russian and Asian collectors coming to the fore. Sotheby's sale suggested American collectors have yet to be deterred by their domestic economic troubles.
Christie's result the previous evening appeared to paint a different picture with domestic American buyers accounting for only a third of the sales and European collectors dominating. However, the corresponding sale last year attracted a similar split of buyers, suggesting it a reflection of Christie's client base rather than the art market as a whole. The fact Americans maintained their presence should be encouraging.
The headline figures from the sales provided more-mixed messages. Sotheby's raised $235m, above its low estimate of $203m but well below last year's blow-out $278m sale. Christie's meanwhile missed its low estimate of $287m by $10m but easily exceeded last year's May sale total of $236m.
The focus now shifts to London, with big sales in the next two weeks, and one would expect more interest from Middle Eastern and Russian buyers in particular.
The New York results underline the fact the global super-rich have yet to regard the financial market meltdown as a reason to rein-in their spending.
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