It is said that 3D is the pillar of the art market. death, divorce, or debtIt is in these dramatic cases of migration, financial crisis, or both, that longtime collectors are most motivated to unload their goods, and if they do, the consequences can be astonishing. There is a possibility.
In May, Sotheby’s won a major auction for the Macklowe collection. his wife LindaThe McCraws, who had no premarital agreement, had been married for nearly 60 years, and their divorce was bittersweet. tax paid From the 80’s.
With sales strength of just 65 lots, including $61 million Pollock and $48 million Rothko, the Macklowe collection most expensive Never sell at auction: absolutely Sotheby’s did $922.2 million Sale. Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart said, “This sale…will make history as one of the defining moments in the art market. said at the time.
Macklowe’s divorce also produced hilariously messy rich man behavior.Years before the sale, Harry Macklowe paid 42-foot-tall Times Square sign In the face of him and his mistress-turned-wife Patricia Landau. If it doesn’t send a message, I don’t know what it will send.
With a major art auction like Macklowe’s Unloading just around the corner, the world’s richest and most discerning collectors are ready to put all their focus and money into their hands. It’s almost guaranteed to work. Expect headline-worthy acquisitions, whether by in-house auction specialists or independent art advisors.
This November, Christie’sVisionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection,A huge compilation of over 150 works from the legacy of the late Microsoft co-founder, the treasures listed are staggering: Gustav Klimt’s birch forestEstimated at over $90 million, the 1903 Autumn Landscape is available, as is a Paul Cézanne landscape estimated to sell for nearly $100 million.
Overall, the auction An unprecedented billion dollarIt breaks the record set by the McCullough collection earlier this year and becomes a big feather in Christie’s cap. With these kinds of goodies hanging in front of them, well-funded buyers are ready to beat themselves up to get in on the action.
When it comes to Cézanne, the buyer who wins the top prize at the Allen Awards may not be the individual. In 2012, as part of an effort to make the country an international arts capital, Qatar spent Over $250 million card player. More recently, Cézanne’s 1895 work The Glade It sold for $41.7 million at Sotheby’s after it was disowned by the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, but the buyer has yet to buy it. Revealed.
With a collage by Jasper Johns (apparently an American artist) estimated to sell for around ¥1000, it is unclear whether Allen’s collection will surpass the auction record for an American artist. $50 millionHowever, it seems likely that Jasper Johns’ personal auction records will almost certainly be expunged.The highest price ever paid for his Johns work at auction $36 million in 2014.
In October, at Christie’s “Anne & Gordon Getty Collection,”, a staggeringly large sale of nearly 1,500 artefacts and decorative arts curated from the couple’s home. Gordon Getty is the son of a billionaire oil tycoon. J. Paul GettyAnne, who died in 2020, was a noblewoman in a San Francisco mansion filled with 18th-century Chinese wallpaper and opulent chandeliers.
Sotheby’s also launched its first product this summer Auction in Singapore In fifteen years, it tells us that the strength of the art market in Southeast Asia is increasing. No doubt more landmark auctions in the region will follow.
See autumn, especially painting-like objects from the 18th century Entrance to the Grand Canal looking east To Canaletto of Getty Collectionand superlative painting by Gerhard Richter It is on sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong and is expected to fetch up to HK$235 million (approximately US$30 million).
“Many of these collectors don’t need these works of art, they just have to get them.”
— Matthew Capasso
“These are cultural trophies, really like piss contests,” Matthew Capasso, director of independent art advisory and art lending firm Gurr Johns Capital, told The Daily Beast. “Many of these collectors don’t need these works of art, they just have to get them. It’s a ski home, they can say ‘I got a Sura at Allen’s sale’ and his buddies can say ‘Oh, that’s cool’ in Davos or anywhere.”
Mega collectors interested in multi-million dollar paintings are generally not on the auction house floor at the time of bidding. is taking placeAn agent has an auction paddle for them or speaks directly to an auction house employee who speaks on the phone during the sale. At the buyer’s direction, auction house employees will intervene in bidding or refrain from bidding if the price becomes too high. Still other bidders choose to place their bets online where anonymity is even more actively guaranteed.
The highest price ever reached for an American work of art at auction was set in May when Christie’s sold Warhol’s work. shot sage blue marilyn for those around me $195 millionThe treasure was acquired by Megagallery scion Larry Gagosian, who previously sold the same thing. 1986 workGagosian is both a seller and a buyer. personal collection .
Artist and curator Hilde Lynn Helfenstein runs the hugely popular art world insider. Instagram account @jerrygogosianas an example of critics becoming institutionally recognized tastemakers, Helfenstein curated:Recommended Followers: How Algorithms Are Always Rightand will be available digitally in partnership with Sotheby’s.
“They are invested, they are hungry, they have the money for it and they want it.”
— Hilde Lynn Helfenstein
Estates affiliated with auctioned artists and American billionaires will always have a chance of winning their lot in terms of which buyers will compete. The art market is financially stronger than the European market,” Helfenstein told the Daily Beast.
“A global art adviser with offices in New York and Hong Kong says the collectors I work with in Asia now are similar to the collectors I worked with in New York 20 years ago. ,” Helphenstein told The Daily Beast. “They are invested, they are hungry, they have the money for it, they want it. They should never be underestimated.”
In fact, Asian buyers accounted for 31% of Christie’s total sales in 2021, with Asian buyers buying or bidding on 46% of Sotheby’s lots, which ultimately sold for more than $5 million. bloomberg report in January.
Billionaires included among these most high-profile buyers Pierre ChenThe Hong Kong-based developer, who has amassed the finest collections over decades and sold a $11.4 million wine collection at Sotheby’s in 2021, youngest billionaire in the world. But Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like Marc Andreessen and luxury giants like Bernard Arnault and Gustavos A. Cisneros have mix togetherbased on enthusiastic and frequent participation in the market.
Max Carter, vice president of 20th and 21st century art at Christie’s, told the Daily Beast: “In Asia, there is a great deal of interest in certain old master artists. But then Asian audiences also respond to the great American artists, the great Impressionists, the early post-war artists. [in the Paul Allen sale]So we send a strong group of masterpieces to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taiwan to make sure we cater to that audience. ”
A lot happens to art after a piece is acquired at auction. It could soon end up in a private collection, be locked up in someone’s personal vault for decades, be moved to a museum, or be used as a bargaining chip in an even more expensive deal. However, the general public has intentionally restricted access to this information. away from the world decades. Very wealthy people are also very private.
The art world coexists with the world around it in some ways and not in others. Inflation and rising interest rates mean that for most collectors looking to part with their paintings, “this is not the perfect time to get people to sell really, really important works of art.” A private art advisor told The Daily Beast.
“But when it comes to things like the Paul Allen sale, no matter what the real economy is on the ground, when you have the opportunity to buy a once-in-a-lifetime or near-extraordinary photo, people who have the means do it. You’ll probably want to stretch for that job, because it could be your only chance for a job,” Godshill said.
This is the allure of an unbanned winner-takes-all auction environment. There are winners and there are losers, and people generally understand this, he says Godsill.
“In terms of how relationships are impacted, it certainly has an impact in terms of whether or not you’ll be offered a job from an exhibition that’s in high demand in the primary market,” Godsill said. I’m here. “I would definitely get annoyed with a gallery that wouldn’t give me and my clients a chance to get something, even if it was highly in demand. It’s a free raw market. is.”