Experts explain where the values are—and what to avoid—in the current market
by Milton Esterow
“It’s the best time to buy,” said Don Rubell, who with his wife, Mera, is on the ARTnews list of the world’s top 200 collectors.
“I’d buy till it hurts right now,” said Peter Marzio, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
“If you’re liquid, this is the time when there are bargains,” said Michael Findlay, a director of Acquavella Galleries in New York.
“There are unbelievable opportunities,” said William Ruprecht, Sotheby’s chief executive officer.
What’s going on? Where have these folks been lately? After all, the Wall Street bankers, the Russian oligarchs, the hedge-fund poo-bahs, the casino tycoons, and the Asian billionaires no longer have so many billions. It’s no secret that the art bubble has burst.
The sales of Impressionist, modern, postwar, and contemporary art at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips de Pury & Company last November yielded a total of $803.3 million, less than half of the $1.75 billion total of November 2007. No one is convinced that private art sales, which annually reach between $25 billion and $30 billion, will climb that high this year.
Last year Leslie Waddington, the London dealer, told me that the good times had to end. “Everything is cyclical,” he said. “I just don’t understand what’s happening.” He added: “I’m expecting trouble, but I have been expecting trouble for a year and a half, and nothing has happened.”
Some weeks ago, he told me, “The telephones aren’t ringing.”
However, Roland Augustine, president of Luhring Augustine and president of the Art Dealers Association of America, is “very positive” about 2009.
“As painful as this contraction is, it’s a welcome time for the art market because the inflationary conditions in the market in the last few years have seen their final days,” he said. “I welcome that. Collectors welcome it. The speculation, at least for the moment, has seen its demise. We have moved away from appreciating the language of art toward treating art as a commodity, and as long as you treat it that way you lose the value of the language.
“I think we will also see better art produced. I think in times like these artists will spend more time considering the art they are creating, instead of being driven to produce art for the marketplace. Artists in many cases have spread themselves very thinly over the last decade.”
The last time there was trouble in the art market was in the 1990s. “I was at the art fair in Basel,” said Rubell, who with his wife established the Rubell Family Collection as a museum of contemporary art in Miami. “It was so empty that you could roll a bowling ball down the aisles.”
Two years ago, at the height of the art boom,you could not roll bowling balls during the Art Basel Miami Beach fair. The fair organizers usually arrange for very rich collectors—dealers are not invited—to attend in advance of the official opening. They line up at the entrance and are permitted to come into the fair two hours before collectors who are not so rich. This gives them a head start in seeing works for sale at the various booths.
“They weren’t exactly grabbing works off the wall, but it was something like a stampede,” said one observer. “It was a feeding frenzy,” said another. One private dealer disguised himself, managed to get on the line, and hurried to various booths so he could advise his clients what to buy.
So if the good times have ended, how do you buy and sell works of art in a recession?
“The current economy provides opportunities for collectors who are really serious about acquiring works of art at the highest quality level, which may have seemed impossible before,” said Marzio. “Now is the time to go up in quality. Everyone always says they buy the best, but they don’t.”
“The real collectors are still buying—but less,” said Pierre Levai, president of Marlborough.
Raymond J. Learsy, a prominent New York collector with his wife, Melva Bucksbaum, agreed. He said, “I’ve always felt that the art market marches to a different drummer than financial markets. People who are really interested in art are a little bit like smokers. You just can’t give it up. It becomes intrinsic to your life and you go and delve into resources that you might not have thought you had to continue collecting.”
Rubell told me that some of the best pieces in his collection were bought during the last recession. “It takes courage to buy at a moment like this, but you get rewarded very much,” he said. “Things are available now. There’s more negotiating going on. Buy pieces from artists who are totally established, who have a track record, or buy from very young artists. There’s always a new generation of artists coming up.”
Jay Gorney, director of contemporary art at the New York gallery Mitchell-Innes & Nash, agreed: “It’s certainly an opportunity to look at the work of younger artists whose work may have been undervalued. It also gives you a chance to look at those artists who may not have realized huge prices or reached the popularity of some of their peers.”
Findlay had another suggestion. He said, “Rather than look for things that may have diminished greatly because they went up quickly in value, look for works by artists who have had a steady increase, who have a track record from before the bubble. Avoid artists who may have risen enormously. I don’t think the market yet knows what those values might be.”
He added, “People who have works of high quality are not going to give them away. And when they are forced to sell, there will be a degree of competition for works that are very good. Also, collectors are going to be more patient. They don’t have to make their minds up overnight.”
One reason collectors no longer have to make a decision in a hurry is that the waiting list some galleries had for works by certain artists has disappeared.
Chelsea art dealer Edward Winkleman offered advice on his blog on how to buy, urging collectors not to stop looking, “even if your art buying budget has been squeezed due to the economy. . . . Looking is free. I suspect many collectors cringe at the thought of an anxious young dealer swooping down upon them with desperate discount offers or pleas for any purchase, but it’s easy enough to be frank with such gallerists, saying you can’t make any purchases at the moment, but you’re still very interested in their program and wish to continue to see their new shows.”
What about discounts? Winkleman says, “You can expect a much meeker response from dealers to your inquiries about discounts these days, I’ll bet on that. But focusing on discounts alone may not be your best means of securing that piece you want. Discussing discounts in conjunction with a long-term interest in the gallery program is your best avenue here.”
Another tip: “Many young collectors may not know that most galleries are happy to work out some sort of payment plan.”
Auctioneers have changed payment plans, too. They have said they would cut guarantees, stop offering bargains on commission charges to sellers, and tighten credit terms to buyers. Price estimates have also been revised.
Museums, of course, have had to change plans, too. Some have made cuts in staff and reduced budgets. I asked Everett Fahy, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of the European paintings department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, how museums have been affected during other periods of economic turmoil.
“Some of the greatest paintings at the Metropolitan, including Andrea Mantegna’s The Adoration of the Shepherds, Jean Antoine Watteau’s Mezzetin, and Jacques-Louis David’s The Death of Socrates, came to the museum during the Great Depression in the 1930s because people were forced to sell,” he said.
I asked Rubell if the “feeding frenzy” will return.
“Collectors are obsessive, compulsive, and competitive people who always like to get the best first,” he said.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Re-Framing the Art Market
At the 21st-annual Art Show in New York, purchases have slowed, as gallerists try to make artwork precious again—but not overpriced. Judith H. Dobrzynski reports.
The crowd was cordial, happily sipping from glasses of Champagne, white wine, and soda. Big collectors like Marty Margulies, Agnes Gund, Frances Bowes, Don Marron, and Helen Schwab roamed the art-filled aisles. As everyone walked around during the gala opening of the annual Art Dealers Association of America art fair in New York last week, they were smiling, laughing, pausing frequently to chat and to look at the art in the gallery booths.
What they weren’t doing, despite valiant new strategies by some dealers, was buying much art.
“We need to get away from the notion of art as solely a commodity, and back to the language of art,” says Roland Augustine, of Luhring Augustine Gallery.
The annual Art Show has never been a “gentlemen, start-your-engines” competitive drive to buy art, the way Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach are. But the uncommonly leisurely—and pleasant—atmosphere last Wednesday night couldn’t veil the crestfallen spirits in the old Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue in Manhattan, which has hosted this show for 21 years. Like chronic hypochondriacs, everyone there was trying to take the art world’s temperature—and the size of the crowd, much diminished from years past, told the tale. Instead of squeezing in and out among the throngs, you could easily make your way from booth to booth, not just early on, when tickets cost from $500 to $2,000 and the quiet was eerie, but even after 7:30 p.m., when the gala’s entry price dropped to $150. The art market is hypothermic.
The mood at the 2009 Art Show was more sedate than it was in the early-1990s recession and the year after 9/11. “We did OK in January,” said Hildegard Bachert, a director of Galerie St. Etienne, which specializes in German & Austrian Expressionist and outsider art, an area that has suffered far less than contemporary art. “But some of our colleagues here are telling us gloom-and-doom stories.” As another dealer put it, “it’s dead.”
Well, not quite. At the gala, David Tunick sold a $250,000 etching by Winslow Homer, and Per Skarstedt sold a photograph by Cindy Sherman priced at $600,000. At the booth of Acquavella Galleries, director Michael Findlay proudly said, “I sold a painting”—and pointed to a 2008 work by James Rosenquist. The asking price was $550,000, and Finlay says he got nearly that from a New York collector.
But elsewhere around the cavernous drill hall, transactions were sparse or small—as they have been ever since October, when it felt like someone flipped a switch and turned off art-collecting.
It was about that time that many dealers began to plan what to bring to this small, gem-like fair, populated by blue-chip dealers and low-flash collectors. Most years, galleries tend to bring a sampling of their works—putting up a Matisse drawing here, a Diebenkorn abstraction there, and a Richard Misrach photograph there in hopes of attracting as many kinds of collectors as their inventory allows. It’s a trade-show approach.
This year, things are different: Of the 70 galleries there, 41 decided to take the riskier, European-dealer approach of curating their booths, either bringing works by one artist or organizing their displays around a theme. Marian Goodman, for example, brought only works by Gerard Richter. James Cohan Gallery used “Body as Prop” as his theme to present eight artist representations of the human figure. Michael Werner had a stunning display of paintings by French painter Eugène Leroy interspersed with 2,000-year-old South Arabian alabaster sculptures. PaceWildenstein showed gouaches by Sol LeWitt, and Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art has landscapes by Hans Hoffman. Galerie Lelong is showing early work by Brazilian artist Helio Oiticica, who was recently the subject of major exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Tate Modern, London.
These intellectually driven displays serve artists more than commerce, and are more visually rewarding to fair visitors. But they have a commercial point, too. “We need to get away from the notion of art as solely a commodity, and back to the language of art,” says Roland Augustine, of Luhring Augustine Gallery, “and the way to do that is to have a carefully curated and qualitative approach.”
In other words, dealers want to make art precious again—not just pricey. Galleries that look like museums help do that and, when Wall Street woes have scared off buyers anyway, why not? “They are taking this approach now because they understand that this long-term approach is the sure-fire way to go,” Augustine says. Instead of encouraging people who speculate in art, treating it like a stock, these shows aim to develop true collectors, who buy and hold for years.
The other obvious trend at the fair is also good for visitors: Some art is again affordable.
Dealers brought lower-priced works, have reduced asking prices, and are negotiating much more than they have in the recent past. Evidence is everywhere. Those Richters at Marian Goodman aren’t paintings, which have fetched as much as $15 million at auction, but small works on paper that cost from $30,000 to $50,000. Dealers admit they’ve dropped prices they were able to get during the bubble by 25 percent to 30 percent on some works. And buyers aren’t scorned if they start their offer at 25 percent less than the asking price. Everyone’s more realistic.
For despite all the financial turmoil, people do have money to spend. And dealers are hoping they can rely on an eternal verity of the art world: Collecting is an addiction, and once collectors are really hooked, they can’t stop.
Judith H. Dobrzynski, formerly a reporter and a senior editor at the New York Times and at Business Week, as well as a senior executive at CNBC, is a writer based in New York.
The crowd was cordial, happily sipping from glasses of Champagne, white wine, and soda. Big collectors like Marty Margulies, Agnes Gund, Frances Bowes, Don Marron, and Helen Schwab roamed the art-filled aisles. As everyone walked around during the gala opening of the annual Art Dealers Association of America art fair in New York last week, they were smiling, laughing, pausing frequently to chat and to look at the art in the gallery booths.
What they weren’t doing, despite valiant new strategies by some dealers, was buying much art.
“We need to get away from the notion of art as solely a commodity, and back to the language of art,” says Roland Augustine, of Luhring Augustine Gallery.
The annual Art Show has never been a “gentlemen, start-your-engines” competitive drive to buy art, the way Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach are. But the uncommonly leisurely—and pleasant—atmosphere last Wednesday night couldn’t veil the crestfallen spirits in the old Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue in Manhattan, which has hosted this show for 21 years. Like chronic hypochondriacs, everyone there was trying to take the art world’s temperature—and the size of the crowd, much diminished from years past, told the tale. Instead of squeezing in and out among the throngs, you could easily make your way from booth to booth, not just early on, when tickets cost from $500 to $2,000 and the quiet was eerie, but even after 7:30 p.m., when the gala’s entry price dropped to $150. The art market is hypothermic.
The mood at the 2009 Art Show was more sedate than it was in the early-1990s recession and the year after 9/11. “We did OK in January,” said Hildegard Bachert, a director of Galerie St. Etienne, which specializes in German & Austrian Expressionist and outsider art, an area that has suffered far less than contemporary art. “But some of our colleagues here are telling us gloom-and-doom stories.” As another dealer put it, “it’s dead.”
Well, not quite. At the gala, David Tunick sold a $250,000 etching by Winslow Homer, and Per Skarstedt sold a photograph by Cindy Sherman priced at $600,000. At the booth of Acquavella Galleries, director Michael Findlay proudly said, “I sold a painting”—and pointed to a 2008 work by James Rosenquist. The asking price was $550,000, and Finlay says he got nearly that from a New York collector.
But elsewhere around the cavernous drill hall, transactions were sparse or small—as they have been ever since October, when it felt like someone flipped a switch and turned off art-collecting.
It was about that time that many dealers began to plan what to bring to this small, gem-like fair, populated by blue-chip dealers and low-flash collectors. Most years, galleries tend to bring a sampling of their works—putting up a Matisse drawing here, a Diebenkorn abstraction there, and a Richard Misrach photograph there in hopes of attracting as many kinds of collectors as their inventory allows. It’s a trade-show approach.
This year, things are different: Of the 70 galleries there, 41 decided to take the riskier, European-dealer approach of curating their booths, either bringing works by one artist or organizing their displays around a theme. Marian Goodman, for example, brought only works by Gerard Richter. James Cohan Gallery used “Body as Prop” as his theme to present eight artist representations of the human figure. Michael Werner had a stunning display of paintings by French painter Eugène Leroy interspersed with 2,000-year-old South Arabian alabaster sculptures. PaceWildenstein showed gouaches by Sol LeWitt, and Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art has landscapes by Hans Hoffman. Galerie Lelong is showing early work by Brazilian artist Helio Oiticica, who was recently the subject of major exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Tate Modern, London.
These intellectually driven displays serve artists more than commerce, and are more visually rewarding to fair visitors. But they have a commercial point, too. “We need to get away from the notion of art as solely a commodity, and back to the language of art,” says Roland Augustine, of Luhring Augustine Gallery, “and the way to do that is to have a carefully curated and qualitative approach.”
In other words, dealers want to make art precious again—not just pricey. Galleries that look like museums help do that and, when Wall Street woes have scared off buyers anyway, why not? “They are taking this approach now because they understand that this long-term approach is the sure-fire way to go,” Augustine says. Instead of encouraging people who speculate in art, treating it like a stock, these shows aim to develop true collectors, who buy and hold for years.
The other obvious trend at the fair is also good for visitors: Some art is again affordable.
Dealers brought lower-priced works, have reduced asking prices, and are negotiating much more than they have in the recent past. Evidence is everywhere. Those Richters at Marian Goodman aren’t paintings, which have fetched as much as $15 million at auction, but small works on paper that cost from $30,000 to $50,000. Dealers admit they’ve dropped prices they were able to get during the bubble by 25 percent to 30 percent on some works. And buyers aren’t scorned if they start their offer at 25 percent less than the asking price. Everyone’s more realistic.
For despite all the financial turmoil, people do have money to spend. And dealers are hoping they can rely on an eternal verity of the art world: Collecting is an addiction, and once collectors are really hooked, they can’t stop.
Judith H. Dobrzynski, formerly a reporter and a senior editor at the New York Times and at Business Week, as well as a senior executive at CNBC, is a writer based in New York.
Faced with demand in the doldrums, dealers at the Armory Art Show in New York are treating their displays more like curated exhibits than trade-show b
For months, painter Robert John Cook gloomily gazed at the unsold work hanging on the walls of his Cape Cod gallery, Mayflower Studio in Yarmouth. With the Dow diving, nobody seemed willing to slap down a thousand dollars for one of his color-splashed landscapes.
But instead of wallowing, the artist took action. He slashed his prices in half and suddenly, buyers emerged. One woman bought a half dozen of his oil paintings in a recent show.
"Yes, people are holding the dollar tight today," said Cook, 52. "But what if you make it so you can't say no? And 50 percent off a painting they'd been looking at a few times, that's good."
It's hardly a surprise that gallery hopping has slowed during the recession. People are focused more on the necessities of life and less on what some might call extravagances. But for collectors, who see paintings and sculptures as both culturally important as well as an investment that will increase in value, the downturn is presenting a rare opportunity.
Like the stock market, the art market is resetting itself after years of virtually unchecked growth. That means works once snatched up immediately are now available. Newcomers can learn more about a piece before taking the plunge. And everyone is getting lower prices.
"It's a great time to buy art, and it's going to get even better," says Lisa Schiff, a New York art consultant for several Boston collectors. "The prices are still falling. We haven't hit the bottom yet, but we're getting close."
On Newbury Street, they're slashing prices and, in the case of one gallery, offering a special "no interest, no money down" deal to prospective buyers. In auction houses, the works of big-name artists are being sold for millions less than they fetched just a few months ago. And instead of fighting to gain access to hot, young artists, collectors are able to think through potential purchases over multiple gallery visits and even meet the creators themselves. Similar to what's happened in the housing market, works that wouldn't have lasted a night during the art boom now hang on walls for weeks.
That's good news for those who not only view art as culturally essential but as an investment. While art values declined over 2008, they decreased less (4.5 percent) than the Standard & Poor's 500 index (37 percent), according to the Mei Moses fine art index codeveloped by Michael Moses, a professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business.
Over the last 20 years, stocks have outperformed art slightly, his study showed, but over the last five years, art values grew on average almost 20 percent a year, far exceeding stocks.
"Is the art market less frothy than it was six months ago? Absolutely," said Moses. "Is this the bottom of the market? I don't know. History tells us that there have been periods where art markets have declined for more than six months or a year. An investor might want to be cautious."
That depends on what you want to buy.
If you're looking for a Jeff Koons, a piece recently sold at Christie's in London for $2 million - about half of what a work by the artist sold for at a Sotheby's auction last November. (Overall, Christie's reported that worldwide sales were down 11 percent in 2008.) If you're looking for something less expensive, Barbara Krakow's Newbury Street gallery has made works in a current show, "Missing," more affordable.
That includes pieces by Michelangelo Pistoletto (dropped from $40,000 to $24,000), Barbara Broughel (from $16,000 to $12,000), and Yayoi Kusama from $6,500 to $4,500).
Though there has been a slowdown, many collectors are continuing to acquire art. Mario Russo, the Boston stylist who sits on the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art, bought a Julian Opie work from Krakow in the fall. And he's planning on going to The Armory art fair in New York next month.
"Right now, it's sort of a time that it's very uncertain and nobody quite knows what prices really are," said Russo, who said he will abide by a buying budget but continue making purchases. "But it's easy to tell what good work is if you know the artist and, for me, this very well might be a good time to start buying things."
To entice buyers, galleries aren't just dropping prices. At Chase Gallery, also on Newbury Street, buyers can purchase art the way they might buy a washing machine at Sears. The gallery struck a deal with GE Finance to insure sales, paying the company $75 a month for a policy. But there is one catch: If the purchase is not paid off after a year, a 16 percent interest rate kicks in.
"We've always offered payment plans," said gallery manager Jane Young. "People could pay over two months or three months and this just seemed like a natural progression. We were really trying to think of ways to make buying art from us easier."
Still, some gallery owners frowned on the idea of letting such expensive pieces walk out the door for so little down, especially during these times.
"I don't think people should buy what they can't afford," said Zach Feuer, a School of the Museum of Fine Arts graduate who has become one of New York's most respected dealers of young artists' work. "That's just what the world needs, more credit and debt."
Feuer hasn't cut prices at his gallery though he has been finding sales slower. His current show features Justin Lieberman, a conceptual artist whose most recent work features objects - including baseball cards, magazines, and records - coated with thick, acrylic resin. Lieberman's last exhibition sold out in a week. Seven weeks after the opening of his current show, Feuer has four of 11 pieces available.
"This is not a bad thing," said Feuer. "What we saw in the last few years was that collectors who were aggressive and newer were the most dominant. Now, collectors who haven't been able to buy art for a while are coming back."
On a recent weekday, Beth Marcus, a Boston collector, visited a handful of galleries and did a studio visit with one artist. She didn't buy a thing - yet.
"During the boom time, you had to make decisions faster and it didn't give you the time to really consider a work of art. This is a wonderful time to learn and think before you spend money."
But instead of wallowing, the artist took action. He slashed his prices in half and suddenly, buyers emerged. One woman bought a half dozen of his oil paintings in a recent show.
"Yes, people are holding the dollar tight today," said Cook, 52. "But what if you make it so you can't say no? And 50 percent off a painting they'd been looking at a few times, that's good."
It's hardly a surprise that gallery hopping has slowed during the recession. People are focused more on the necessities of life and less on what some might call extravagances. But for collectors, who see paintings and sculptures as both culturally important as well as an investment that will increase in value, the downturn is presenting a rare opportunity.
Like the stock market, the art market is resetting itself after years of virtually unchecked growth. That means works once snatched up immediately are now available. Newcomers can learn more about a piece before taking the plunge. And everyone is getting lower prices.
"It's a great time to buy art, and it's going to get even better," says Lisa Schiff, a New York art consultant for several Boston collectors. "The prices are still falling. We haven't hit the bottom yet, but we're getting close."
On Newbury Street, they're slashing prices and, in the case of one gallery, offering a special "no interest, no money down" deal to prospective buyers. In auction houses, the works of big-name artists are being sold for millions less than they fetched just a few months ago. And instead of fighting to gain access to hot, young artists, collectors are able to think through potential purchases over multiple gallery visits and even meet the creators themselves. Similar to what's happened in the housing market, works that wouldn't have lasted a night during the art boom now hang on walls for weeks.
That's good news for those who not only view art as culturally essential but as an investment. While art values declined over 2008, they decreased less (4.5 percent) than the Standard & Poor's 500 index (37 percent), according to the Mei Moses fine art index codeveloped by Michael Moses, a professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business.
Over the last 20 years, stocks have outperformed art slightly, his study showed, but over the last five years, art values grew on average almost 20 percent a year, far exceeding stocks.
"Is the art market less frothy than it was six months ago? Absolutely," said Moses. "Is this the bottom of the market? I don't know. History tells us that there have been periods where art markets have declined for more than six months or a year. An investor might want to be cautious."
That depends on what you want to buy.
If you're looking for a Jeff Koons, a piece recently sold at Christie's in London for $2 million - about half of what a work by the artist sold for at a Sotheby's auction last November. (Overall, Christie's reported that worldwide sales were down 11 percent in 2008.) If you're looking for something less expensive, Barbara Krakow's Newbury Street gallery has made works in a current show, "Missing," more affordable.
That includes pieces by Michelangelo Pistoletto (dropped from $40,000 to $24,000), Barbara Broughel (from $16,000 to $12,000), and Yayoi Kusama from $6,500 to $4,500).
Though there has been a slowdown, many collectors are continuing to acquire art. Mario Russo, the Boston stylist who sits on the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art, bought a Julian Opie work from Krakow in the fall. And he's planning on going to The Armory art fair in New York next month.
"Right now, it's sort of a time that it's very uncertain and nobody quite knows what prices really are," said Russo, who said he will abide by a buying budget but continue making purchases. "But it's easy to tell what good work is if you know the artist and, for me, this very well might be a good time to start buying things."
To entice buyers, galleries aren't just dropping prices. At Chase Gallery, also on Newbury Street, buyers can purchase art the way they might buy a washing machine at Sears. The gallery struck a deal with GE Finance to insure sales, paying the company $75 a month for a policy. But there is one catch: If the purchase is not paid off after a year, a 16 percent interest rate kicks in.
"We've always offered payment plans," said gallery manager Jane Young. "People could pay over two months or three months and this just seemed like a natural progression. We were really trying to think of ways to make buying art from us easier."
Still, some gallery owners frowned on the idea of letting such expensive pieces walk out the door for so little down, especially during these times.
"I don't think people should buy what they can't afford," said Zach Feuer, a School of the Museum of Fine Arts graduate who has become one of New York's most respected dealers of young artists' work. "That's just what the world needs, more credit and debt."
Feuer hasn't cut prices at his gallery though he has been finding sales slower. His current show features Justin Lieberman, a conceptual artist whose most recent work features objects - including baseball cards, magazines, and records - coated with thick, acrylic resin. Lieberman's last exhibition sold out in a week. Seven weeks after the opening of his current show, Feuer has four of 11 pieces available.
"This is not a bad thing," said Feuer. "What we saw in the last few years was that collectors who were aggressive and newer were the most dominant. Now, collectors who haven't been able to buy art for a while are coming back."
On a recent weekday, Beth Marcus, a Boston collector, visited a handful of galleries and did a studio visit with one artist. She didn't buy a thing - yet.
"During the boom time, you had to make decisions faster and it didn't give you the time to really consider a work of art. This is a wonderful time to learn and think before you spend money."
Turning The Art Market Into A Market For Art
Faced with demand in the doldrums, dealers at the Armory Art Show in New York are treating their displays more like curated exhibits than trade-show booths. "In other words, dealers want to make art precious again - not just pricey. Galleries that look like museums help do that and, when Wall Street woes have scared off buyers anyway, why not? […] Instead of encouraging people who speculate in art, treating it like a stock, these shows aim to develop true collectors, who buy and hold for years." The Daily Beast 02/23/09
Downturn's Upside For Buyers: Bargains (& Time To Think)
"It's hardly a surprise that gallery hopping has slowed during the recession. People are focused more on the necessities of life and less on what some might call extravagances. But for collectors, who see paintings and sculptures as both culturally important as well as an investment that will increase in value, the downturn is presenting a rare opportunity." Boston Globe 02/25/09
The Russians Did Save the Art Market!
by Irina Aleksander 11:40 AM February 24, 2009
The auction of Yves Saint Laurent's art collection in Paris last night brought in an astounding $262 million, according to Bloomberg. In fact, the sale set records for works of seven of the major artists, including Henri Matisse's 1911 still life of cowslips in a vase titled Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, a 1922 Piet Mondrian abstract Composition With Blue, Red, Yellow and Black, and a 1921 Marcel Duchamp readymade of a perfume bottle with a Man Ray photograph of the artist’s female alter ego, "Rrose Selavy."
The pre-action viewing of the collection attracted some 35,000 visitors including many French art collectors and a New York-based art dealer named Franck Giraud. The particular buyers for many of the highly-prized works were not disclosed. But it looks like the Daily Transom was correct in predicting that major Russian art collectors would have something to do with bringing back hope to the flailing art market when the time came.
According to the Bloomberg article, "Among the last-minute VIP visitors to the exhibition hall, just four hours before the sale, was Russian billionaire art collector Roman Abramovich, accompanied by dealer Larry Gagosian. Christie’s owner, French billionaire Francois Pinault, was present at the sale."
Last year, Mr. Abramovich made headlines by purchasing a Degas for $26.5 million, a Francis Bacon triptych for $86.3 million, and a painting by Lucian Freud for $33.6 million. And his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova opened an art gallery in Moscow called The Garage not too long ago. Incidentally, Mr. Gagosian was a guest at the gallery's soft opening.
"I can now phone up my clients and say there is nothing wrong with the market," Paolo Vedovi, director of Brussels-based Galerie Vedovi, told Bloomberg after the auction was finished.
The auction of Yves Saint Laurent's art collection in Paris last night brought in an astounding $262 million, according to Bloomberg. In fact, the sale set records for works of seven of the major artists, including Henri Matisse's 1911 still life of cowslips in a vase titled Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, a 1922 Piet Mondrian abstract Composition With Blue, Red, Yellow and Black, and a 1921 Marcel Duchamp readymade of a perfume bottle with a Man Ray photograph of the artist’s female alter ego, "Rrose Selavy."
The pre-action viewing of the collection attracted some 35,000 visitors including many French art collectors and a New York-based art dealer named Franck Giraud. The particular buyers for many of the highly-prized works were not disclosed. But it looks like the Daily Transom was correct in predicting that major Russian art collectors would have something to do with bringing back hope to the flailing art market when the time came.
According to the Bloomberg article, "Among the last-minute VIP visitors to the exhibition hall, just four hours before the sale, was Russian billionaire art collector Roman Abramovich, accompanied by dealer Larry Gagosian. Christie’s owner, French billionaire Francois Pinault, was present at the sale."
Last year, Mr. Abramovich made headlines by purchasing a Degas for $26.5 million, a Francis Bacon triptych for $86.3 million, and a painting by Lucian Freud for $33.6 million. And his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova opened an art gallery in Moscow called The Garage not too long ago. Incidentally, Mr. Gagosian was a guest at the gallery's soft opening.
"I can now phone up my clients and say there is nothing wrong with the market," Paolo Vedovi, director of Brussels-based Galerie Vedovi, told Bloomberg after the auction was finished.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
国际艺术品市场 艺术品交易也有指数做依据
2009年02月13日 10:45:41 作者：征宇 来源：文汇报
一幅炙手可热的中国当代画作，是否真的值数百万美元?高昂的艺术品投资市场是否是一个大泡沫?在沸腾的艺术品拍卖场里，买卖双方、拍卖师和鉴赏家们在拍卖槌落下之前，除了依靠自己的直觉、经验和钱袋外，都离不开对相关指数的分析，其中最有影响力的一种叫艺术品市场指数，亦即“梅—摩西艺术品指数”(Mei—Moses in-dex，以下简称梅—摩指数)。
梅—摩指数每时每刻都在影响全球的艺术品投资，它不仅被巴克利银行等顶级金融机构采用，著名投资银行摩根斯坦利更将其列为世界十大生产指数之一。通过近年来国内媒体对这一指数创建人、长江商学院金融学教授梅建平的一系列报道，国内艺术品投资市场对这一指数逐渐熟悉。梅建平非常关注中国，希望与中国项级的金融机构和研究机构进行合作。
梅一摩指数的实质，是用科学来描述天马行空般的艺术世界。梅建平和纽约大学斯特恩商学院的迈克·摩西教授认为，“艺术即资产”。2002年，他们发表研究报告称，艺术品的投资价值早在1876年就轻易超过债券和国库券。根据他们的最新研究，截止到2007年，过去十年艺术品的投资回报率略超过股票，年收益达8.5%。当代艺术—他们称为自1950年以来最重要的艺术—甚至表现更好，过去十年的回报率略高达12.7%,超过股票的回报率三个百分点。
这两位教授成立了一家名为美丽资产顾问(Beautiful Asset Ad—visotsl)的咨询公司，向投资者出售他们的研究成果。摩西教授建议拥有至少50万美元(扣除债务后)金融资产的投资者分配大约10%资金用于艺术品投资。梅—摩指数的数据分为三类：一是美国画派，即1650至1950年美国本土画家创作的绘画作品的拍卖价格;二是1875至1950年西方油画印象派和现代派作品的拍卖价格;三是1200年至1875年西方早期古典画派作品的拍卖价格。摩西说：“用我们的指数，再综合艺术家的特征、作品大小、在主要博物馆展出的次数等变量，我们可以对拍卖结果进行预报，预报价格与实际售价之间基本上有一个89%的弥合度。中国的当代艺术家和50年前的美国艺术家很相似。”
梅—摩指数分析发现，美国画派的投资回报率要高于古典派和现代派。“1950年代美国成为超级强国，收藏家开始重视本土艺术家的作品。如果中国国力继续增强，20年后，中国的艺术品就会成为世界主流。”
梅—摩指数是从1200个价格比中得出的：同一幅画或雕塑在公开拍卖中至少出现两次。事实表明一件艺术品第二次能够进入拍卖的目录，就说明一定有什么东西在支撑它。参与了这项研究的摩西教授做出同样结论。但是他强调他的数据表也不包括许多胜利者。如果你在美术馆花500美元买下一幅贾斯培尔·琼斯(Jasper Jolans)的作品然后以500万美元的价格再在拍卖会上卖掉，那么你的成功也不在梅—摩指数之内。同样不包括在拍卖会上买到亨利·马蒂斯(Henri Matisse)的作品然后再把它捐赠给有关机构。
一幅炙手可热的中国当代画作，是否真的值数百万美元?高昂的艺术品投资市场是否是一个大泡沫?在沸腾的艺术品拍卖场里，买卖双方、拍卖师和鉴赏家们在拍卖槌落下之前，除了依靠自己的直觉、经验和钱袋外，都离不开对相关指数的分析，其中最有影响力的一种叫艺术品市场指数，亦即“梅—摩西艺术品指数”(Mei—Moses in-dex，以下简称梅—摩指数)。
梅—摩指数每时每刻都在影响全球的艺术品投资，它不仅被巴克利银行等顶级金融机构采用，著名投资银行摩根斯坦利更将其列为世界十大生产指数之一。通过近年来国内媒体对这一指数创建人、长江商学院金融学教授梅建平的一系列报道，国内艺术品投资市场对这一指数逐渐熟悉。梅建平非常关注中国，希望与中国项级的金融机构和研究机构进行合作。
梅一摩指数的实质，是用科学来描述天马行空般的艺术世界。梅建平和纽约大学斯特恩商学院的迈克·摩西教授认为，“艺术即资产”。2002年，他们发表研究报告称，艺术品的投资价值早在1876年就轻易超过债券和国库券。根据他们的最新研究，截止到2007年，过去十年艺术品的投资回报率略超过股票，年收益达8.5%。当代艺术—他们称为自1950年以来最重要的艺术—甚至表现更好，过去十年的回报率略高达12.7%,超过股票的回报率三个百分点。
这两位教授成立了一家名为美丽资产顾问(Beautiful Asset Ad—visotsl)的咨询公司，向投资者出售他们的研究成果。摩西教授建议拥有至少50万美元(扣除债务后)金融资产的投资者分配大约10%资金用于艺术品投资。梅—摩指数的数据分为三类：一是美国画派，即1650至1950年美国本土画家创作的绘画作品的拍卖价格;二是1875至1950年西方油画印象派和现代派作品的拍卖价格;三是1200年至1875年西方早期古典画派作品的拍卖价格。摩西说：“用我们的指数，再综合艺术家的特征、作品大小、在主要博物馆展出的次数等变量，我们可以对拍卖结果进行预报，预报价格与实际售价之间基本上有一个89%的弥合度。中国的当代艺术家和50年前的美国艺术家很相似。”
梅—摩指数分析发现，美国画派的投资回报率要高于古典派和现代派。“1950年代美国成为超级强国，收藏家开始重视本土艺术家的作品。如果中国国力继续增强，20年后，中国的艺术品就会成为世界主流。”
梅—摩指数是从1200个价格比中得出的：同一幅画或雕塑在公开拍卖中至少出现两次。事实表明一件艺术品第二次能够进入拍卖的目录，就说明一定有什么东西在支撑它。参与了这项研究的摩西教授做出同样结论。但是他强调他的数据表也不包括许多胜利者。如果你在美术馆花500美元买下一幅贾斯培尔·琼斯(Jasper Jolans)的作品然后以500万美元的价格再在拍卖会上卖掉，那么你的成功也不在梅—摩指数之内。同样不包括在拍卖会上买到亨利·马蒂斯(Henri Matisse)的作品然后再把它捐赠给有关机构。
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