Market fails test as Sotheby's fails to sell top two lots
May 10, 2009
By Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff New York
THE ART market flunked a stress test this week as Sotheby's posted its lowest total for a New York Impressionist and modern art auction since November 2001.
The top two lots, by Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti, failed to sell.
The $61.4 million (R514.5m) total was about a quarter of the tally of a year ago and well below the auction house's low estimate of $81.5m. Picasso's robin-egg blue portrait of the artist's daughter and a bronze cat by Swiss sculptor Giacometti had each been estimated to fetch up to $24m.
A packed crowd could not mask the mood. Yawns and raised eyebrows littered the suited spectators, as Sotheby's had its smallest tally for the category since the $33.1m two months after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"It wasn't a good thing for the auction houses," said Paul Gray of Chicago's Richard Gray Gallery. "It will make it more difficult to attract high-end pictures."
Last year, Sotheby's and Christie's International announced they were phasing out the practice of guaranteeing a seller a minimum price regardless of a sale's outcome, to improve profitability.
Sotheby's chief executive William Ruprecht said at the auction it was the company's most profitable Impressionist sale in 12 months.
"There's a lot more coming in than going out," he said. He declined to comment about the credit downgrade.
"I think the market is very strong for a recession," said John Bloomberg, a Park City, Utah-based skier and former hedge fund manager, who bid unsuccessfully for several Impressionist pieces.- Bloomberg
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