NYC spring art auctions will be smaller
By ULA ILNYTZKY, Associated Press
Apr 27, 2009 7:12 PM CDT

Facing a still uncertain economy, the world's two leading auction houses head into their busy spring auction season with fewer artworks to sell and lower estimates than in previous years. But the picture isn't entirely grim.

Both Sotheby's and Christie's are featuring unusual pieces in May that haven't been on the market for decades. And even though many wealthy collectors have been hammered by the recession, there are still plenty of investors and art museums with the resources to spend millions of dollars on art.

"Sotheby's and Christie's have done a very good job of getting property consigned at realistic estimates" considering current market conditions, said David Nash of the Manhattan art gallery Mitchell-Innes & Nash and an expert in impressionist and modern art. "They've edited these sales quite well, and kept them short."

On May 5, Sotheby's is offering 36 impressionist and modern works in an evening sale that is traditionally reserved for its best merchandise. The sale is expected to bring up to $118.8 million, compared to last spring when 52 lots sold for $235.4 million. Sotheby's contemporary evening sale on May 12 has 49 lots and is expected to bring as much as $72.7 million. In 2008, $362 million was realized for 83 contemporary works.

Christie's has 50 lots at its evening sale on May 6, which it expects will bring $94 million. Last spring it had 58 works, and realized $277.2 million for 44 sold lots. For its contemporary evening sale on May 13, it expects to achieve up to $104 million, compared to $331.4 million last spring.

Both houses are offering exceptional works by Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Max Ernst, Piet Mondrian and David Hockney, but there are fewer star quality works because "sellers are reluctant to sell to this market because they don't think they will get the best price," Nash said.

Sotheby's president, Bill Ruprecht, acknowledged that the shortage of works coming to market was affecting the business.

"That does not mean there aren't material transactions happening," he said. "That just means that there are many fewer transactions because there's still more a sense of disquiet and inconsistency between what buyers want and what sellers want."

"It continues to be a watchful environment," added Christie's Americas president, Marc Porter. "We have tried very hard to use estimates that are as reflective of the market as possible. ... For some fields, we will discover that we need to further refine estimates."

Both houses have virtually done away with guarantees _ the sum promised to sellers whether their works sell or not and an enticing tool auctioneers use to secure the highest quality consignments.

"Guarantees need market predictability, which we don't have now," Porter said.

But the economy has not left wealthy buyers and sellers shaken and without resources, as some believe.

"They're sitting with cash and assets and for the most part are not forced to sell," Porter said.

Many hedge fund and private equity managers, who have been some of the biggest buyers of record-breaking artworks in recent years _ remain in the picture.

"There are fewer of them ... but (they) are still wildly rich and they continue to buy and collect," he said. "There's still a Forbes 400 list."

Museums have also been active buyers in the current market, seeing opportunities to sell objects to buy other objects. The San Francisco De Young Museum, Wooster Art Museum in Massachusetts and Yale University Art gallery in New Haven, Connecticut, are among them, according to Porter. At Christie's Yves Saint Laurent sale in February, museums from Sweden to Australia placed winning bids on various works.

While few world records are expected to be set at the upcoming auctions, both houses are offering works that boast impeccable provenance and that are fresh to the market.

Christie's has a 1971 Picasso, "Woman With Hat," belonging to film director Julian Schnabel, who has consigned it to help finance a real estate project.

Showing a female figure with a face reminiscent of the artist himself, the canvas is estimated to sell for $8 million to $12 million. Schnabel bought it from the artist's grandson, Bernard Picasso, and it has hung in his Manhattan home and studio since 1989. Picasso himself selected the canvas for a solo exhibition in Avignon, France, in 1973, but he died a month before it opened.

At Sotheby's, an important Giacometti work, "The Cat" (estimated at $16 million to $24 million), was last seen at auction in 1975. And an abstract painting by Piet Mondrian, "Composition in Black and White, With Double Lines" ($3 million to $5 million), has been on loan since 1967 at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Another Picasso with stellar provenance is being sold at Sotheby's. "The Daughter of the Artist at 2 1/2 With a Boat," a 1938 painting estimated to sell for $16 million to $24 million. It remained in the artist's possession until his death, and a private collector has owned since the 1980s.

"For discerning collectors, these sales represent a real opportunity to acquire works of great quality at prices that may be strong, but are not fueled by the speculation in the market we saw in the last few years," said Megan Fox Kelly, who owns an art advisory firm in New York.

Among several works never seen at auction is "A Curse on You Mothers," a massive Max Ernst oil of birdlike human forms. Estimated to sell for $7 million to $9 million at Christie's, it could break the current record for an Ernst painting of $2.4 million, set in 2008 for his "The Conversion of Fire."

Both houses are also offering property from well-known private estates. Christie's has three works by Giacometti, Henry Matisse and Joan Miro belonging to Carrel Gimbal Lebworth of Gimbel's department store fame. All three represent pivotal points in the artists' careers and have never been to auction. They are Giacometti's "Bust of Diego" ($4.5 million to $6.5 million), Matisse's "Nude With a White Towel" ($2 million to $3 million) and Miro's "Study for Figure" ($300,000 to $400,00).

Lebworth's mother, Alva Gimbel, purchased the Giacometti in 1959, a year after it was cast. Alva Greenberg of New London, Conn., Lebworth's daughter, said the sale proceeds would go to a charitable trust set up by her mother.

Sotheby's has two works by Camille Pissarro and one by Claude Monet from the renowned collection of Louisine and Henry Osborne Havemeyer, whose many works were gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For its May 13 contemporary sale, Christie's has high hopes for 19 paintings that belonged to the late art patron Betty Freeman and have been consigned to satisfy inheritance and estate taxes.

The star lot is Hockney's "Beverly Hills Housewife" painting of Freeman on the patio of her home. The large canvas could bring between $7 million and $10 million, which would be a new record for the British artist. The current record is $5.4 million for his "The Splash" sold at Sotheby's in 2006.

But Nash said the sales also contain a number of works that failed to sell at recent auctions, such as Marc Chagall's "The Event" at Christie's in November 2007. It was estimated at $5 million to $7 million, and is now being reoffered for a lower $3 million to $4 million estimate.

Guy Bennett, Christie's international co-head for the impressionist and modern department, said the auction house has worked hard to address the fluctuations in the art market.

The upcoming impressionist sale "is made up of items at all price points because it's important to recognize that the market has shifted significantly," he said.

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On the Net:

http://www.sothebys.com

http://www.christies.com