Blue Chips and Bargain Hunters in Bologna

By Cathryn Drake
Published: February 2, 2009

BOLOGNA—On the train from Rome to Bologna for this year’s Arte Fiera, which took place January 23–26, ARTINFO ran into New York and Connecticut dealer James Barron. “I don’t plan to buy anything this year,” Barron told us, his words reflecting a growing trend at art fairs these days. “It is bargain-hunting time.”
This year marks the 33rd edition of Arte Fiera, and the mood inside the Bologna Exhibition Center was generally upbeat, even as exhibitors remained wary of the economic reality. Some speculated that the fair, the biggest event of its kind in Italy, might see healthier returns in an economic crisis than competing events because it includes modern art in addition to contemporary works. And indeed, there were plenty of older blue-chip works on offer. In the first hall ARTINFO spotted a tiny Giacometti statuette at the booth of Florence dealer Tornabuoni Arte; its asking price was €2.5 million ($3.3 million). Tornabuoni was also displaying works by Italian standbys Alighiero Boetti, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, and Giorgio De Chirico along with Picasso, Miró, and Kandinsky. According to the gallery’s Ursula Casamonti, “Many dealers told me they were selling only half as much as last year, but we sold more.” She said the gallery sold several paintings, each in the relatively lower range of €3,000–4,000.
Italian economist Giovanni Gasparini, who was looking at Futurists and Lucio Fontana, speculated that prices would still be high for artists like Burri and Fontana because they are seen as a more enduring investment than emerging artists. “Certain sectors [of the market] will not be affected, such as the high end,” he said. “There will be a process of natural selection: People will buy what they perceive as viable in the long term, and what is seen as high quality could even increase in price because it will be seen as a refuge for investment. The trendy stuff will go down or remain unsold.”
Such predictions should have boded well for Milan- and New York–based Galleria Lattuada Studio, which was exhibiting Futurists Giacomo Balla, Fortunato Depero, Gino Severini, and Umberto Boccioni; the latter’s gorgeous 1915 masterpiece Simultaneous Nude was on offer for €4 million. At the outset of the fair, assistant Monica Fornaciari was optimistic, saying, “We expect to sell well because it is the anniversary of Futurism, which has been our specialty for 40 years.” But by the end of the fair she reported having lots of offers but no actual sales. “It is a long process with such important and expensive work,” she said.
Some visitors expressed surprise that prices were as high as ever. “It seems like Italy is in denial about the state of the economy,” said Roman collector Cristina Cobianchi. “The shops have not increased holiday sales discounts, even though nobody is buying.”
Others weren’t too fazed by the situation. At a brunch at the house of Bolognese collectors Marino and Paolo Golinelli, near Piazza Maggiore, the city’s central square, Milanese collector Davide Blei was overheard telling gallerist Ermanno Tedeschi over the phone that the prices were just as high as last year. That didn't stop Blei from buying a painting by Ryan McGinness, Fool Me Once (2008), from Paolo Curti & Co. for €20,000, however. “I have been wanting to buy something by the artist for a long time and finally found the right size,” he said.
As for the Golinellis, whose house was packed with enormous paintings by McGinness, Michael Bevilacqua, and Christine Streuli, as well as a room-size installation by Lucy and Jorge Orta, Paola said, “We have not had time to look [around the fair], but we usually wait until the end and buy the big ones that are always left.”
Even with prices holding steady, word on the ground was that the fair was a buyer’s market in the sense that collectors were taking their time to look around and consider all their options before making purchases. It’s possible, too, that visitors were slow in coming back to booths because of the confusing new layout of the fair. Previously it was simply two floors, one on top of the other; this year it was laid out in an airport-like arrangement of three halls connected by a confounding network of stairways, escalators, and hallways, which resulted in a maze full of claustrophobic bottlenecks. At times the whole thing felt like a carnival fun house. Some booths reinforced this perception: Milan’s BND Contemporary Art Vision offered ping-pong matches with the likes of Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, and Jeff Koons — or at least with giant likenesses rendered by Russian artist group the Blue Noses.
Rome gallerist Valentina Bonomo said that she had started out quite anxious this year but that Italian collectors had shown confidence in the art market, even if they were more cautious than in previous years. “Usually everything goes within the first two days. This was the year of ‘Ci penso’ [I’ll think about it],” she said. “But at the end they thought about it and came back.” Bonomo said that selling works for more than €100,000 was more difficult than before, except for works by very established artists. She managed to get rid of Julian Opie’s oval 2008 portrait Vera Dancer, for £10,000 ($14,260), and a group of Chinese collectors came and bought some small pieces by Mimmo Palladino.
Other dealers also found that smaller and lower-priced works were the ones to go. “It went much better the last two years and at Artissima,” said Naples’s Umberto Di Marino. “This year the same collectors bought smaller stuff around €2,000 to €3,000.” Elisabetta di Grazia of Turin’s Tucci Russo pointed out that some of the works her gallery was selling were priced too high for the fair — for example, a €210,000 sculpture by Tony Cragg and a €160,000 marble diptych by Giuseppe Penone. “This is a medium-priced fair compared to Artissima,” she said. The gallery also featured works such as Testa Nera, a sculpture by Francesco Gennari, priced at €13,000.
Turin’s Artissima, which took place last November 7–9, has nearly 100 fewer exhibitors than Bologna and, by comparison, is considered more curated, international, and exclusive. Arte Fiera, on the other hand, with its more than 50,000 visitors, has the more laid-back, bustling atmosphere of a fair in the traditional sense. On Saturday the hallways were so packed that it was impossible to get around the crowds. That afternoon the prestigious Furla Prize was presented to 25-year-old Italian artist Alberto Tadiello, represented by T293 gallery in Naples, whose artist Tris Vonna-Michell won a prize at Art Basel last year.
Another reason for Bologna’s appeal is that it includes a Young Galleries section, which showcases more affordable contemporary art geared toward the fair’s broad audience. Paola Capata, of Rome’s Monitor, said she sold work by every artist — including Ian Tweedy, a nominee for the Furla Prize — and had done business with three new collectors. She said sales were not as good as in previous years, but she had covered her expenses, selling work priced between €2,500 and €12,000. “I had to work harder to convince buyers, who were more cautious this year.” She noticed fewer foreign collectors in attendance this year and none from the United States.
It was the first time at Bologna for Palermo dealer Francesco Pantaleone, who said he had sold less than in Turin but had connected with some good Italian collectors and made back his expenses by selling small works by Stefania Galegati, Loredana Longo, and Marcello Maloberti (all in the range of €1,000–5,000).
Berlin gallerist Davide Gallo said the fair was not as bad as everybody predicted, but he found that the market was “less responsive” than in previous years and decided to give a 20 percent discount.
“In my experience Miami was much worse!” he said.
Jennifer Bacon of New York’s Esso Gallery, one of only five exhibitors from the American art capital, said she was “happy to see that there is still a strong market in Italy, since New York is devastated.” She reported that the gallery was selling — and had intentionally brought — smaller works this year.
Another New York gallery, James Cohan had a highly curated booth focused on artists Trenton Doyle Hancock, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, and Bill Viola, with a sculpture by Erick Swenson. The gallery’s Laurie Harrison noted that emerging artists with lower price points were doing better.
“We saw a marked difference in sales this year,” said Harrison. “It is a snapshot of the times.”