art market

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Economy Shadows Miami Art Fair

Collectors descend on Art Basel, but sales are slow

(Newser) - The art world descends on Miami this week for Art Basel Miami Beach, America's biggest art fair. But last night's VIP opening had none of the crazed buying of recent years, when collectors ran through the aisles in the first minutes like frenzied Wal-Mart shoppers. "It's obvious the economy...

Major Works Fail to Sell at Christie's

Dismal auction season continues as Bacon fails to find buyer

(Newser) - The art world bust continued last night at the Christie's contemporary auction in New York, where almost a third of the 75 works on the block went unsold. Not a single collector bid for the highlight of the sale, a self-portrait by Francis Bacon estimated to sell for around $40...

Contemporary Art Goes Bust at Dismal Auction

Lot after lot goes unsold at New York auction

(Newser) - Collectors from Steve Martin to Valentino packed the Sotheby's saleroom in New York last night, but its contemporary art auction barely pulled in $125 million—far below the low estimate of $202 million. For those who could afford it, works were going at bargain-basement prices. "It was a half-price...

Art Market Stalls at Grim Fall Sale

Malevich sets record, but Sotheby's has a slow night in New York

(Newser) - In New York last night Sotheby's held a lackluster auction that portended a grim year ahead for the once buoyant art market. Of 70 lots at the sale of impressionist and modern art, fully 25 found no buyers. There was one bit of good news for the market: a...

Sotheby's Pulls $30M Picasso on Market Jitters

Top lot in Nov. auction withdrawn as seller panics

(Newser) - A painting from Picasso's Cubist period that was one of the highlights of the fall auction season has been pulled "for private reasons," Sotheby's New York office said yesterday. The withdrawal of Arlequin, a 1909 work which was estimated at more than $30 million, had been rumored for...

At London Fair, Art Market Finally Stalls

Frieze opens to lots of collectors, but few sales

(Newser) - As the financial crisis has deepened, the art world seemed strangely impervious to global declines. But at yesterday's opening of the Frieze Art Fair in London, one of the year's biggest events, the slowdown finally caught up to the heady art market. Where once visitors ran maniacally to buy artwork...

Hirst Auction Yields $199M
 Hirst Auction Yields $199M 
Sep 17, 2008 4:50 PM CDT

Hirst Auction Yields $199M

Dealer-less London sale smashes records

(Newser) - Damien Hirst sold 223 pieces of artwork for $199 million by the end of a two-day auction yesterday, shattering the record for most revenue in an auction of a single artist’s work, Forbes reports. The previous mark was held by Pablo Picasso, with 88 sold for $20 million in...

As Stocks Slide, Hirst Auction Breaks Records

Unprecedented one-man auction exceeds high estimate

(Newser) - Damien Hirst won the biggest gamble of his career at Sotheby's last night—as lot after lot of the artist's work beat high estimates, totaling $127.2 million in sales. While the markets tumbled in New York, bidders in the London saleroom bought up dozens of brand-new Hirsts, from taxidermied...

Cruise Ship Art Dealer Faces Class Action

Promising deals, gallery sold works at grossly inflated prices

(Newser) - Park West Gallery in Southfield, Mich., claims to be "the world's largest art dealer," flogging more works than the major auction houses through its sales on half a dozen cruise lines. But while the onboard auctions promise "good investments," the New York Times reports that Park...

Masters Shore Up Shaky Art Market

Auctions break records, but living artists' work suffers

(Newser) - The art market has again defied the economic downturn, with Christie's and Sotheby's bringing in more than $1 billion combined during the past two weeks' London sales—a 19% rise from last year. But those numbers disguise the erratic nature of the market, writes the Wall Street Journal. While new...

Art Basel: Brisk Sales, but No Frenzy

Collectors buy, but enthusiasm is low at Swiss art fair

(Newser) - Art Basel, the world's most prestigious (and most expensive) art fair, opened Tuesday in Switzerland amid grumbles that works for sale were of middling quality and overpriced. "Now there are just too many art fairs," said a director of PaceWildenstein, one of New York's biggest galleries. As the...

Bacon Breaks Record as Art Market Sizzles

Artist's 1976 masterpiece sells for $86M at red-hot Sotheby's sale

(Newser) - A 1976 triptych painting by Francis Bacon became the most expensive piece of contemporary art ever sold when it went for $86.2 million at auction last night, Reuters reports. Seventeen other artists also set records at the sale, boosting Sotheby's to the best night in its 300-year history and...

Art Continues to Buck Ragged Economy

Contemporary works bring $348M at Christie's—which even sells a house

(Newser) - Christie's auction of contemporary art in New York belied an economic downturn, the Times reports, with paintings, sculpture, and even a house fetching handsome prices. Two works drew particular attention: a portrait of a 280-pound nude woman by Lucian Freud, which sold for $33.6 million, and a house in...

Art Auction Houses Predict 25% Bump

Sotheby's and Christie's prepare for booming auction season—they hope

(Newser) - The New York art auction season begins today, and Sotheby’s and Christie’s say they believe the art market’s 5-year boom will continue, forecasting $1.8 billion in sales, reports the Financial Times. The prediction of a 25% boost over last year flies in the face of financial-market...

Spring Art Auctions Surrounded by Crash Talk
Spring Art Auctions Surrounded by Crash Talk
analysis
Apr 29, 2008 10:25 AM CDT

Spring Art Auctions Surrounded by Crash Talk

Writers keep predicting implosion, but it might never come

(Newser) - It's auction season again in the art world, and Sotheby's and Christie's have put record estimates on dozens of paintings. Despite warnings in the media of an imminent crash, prices of fine art seem to be impervious to the global economic downturn. It's enough to make one writer at Slate ...

Not a Great Time to Be an Artist

Top financier predicts sharp downturn in market

(Newser) - The exploding art market may be about to deflate: New York’s flurry of contemporary art fairs last week had surprisingly good sales in light of the economic times, reports Portfolio, but the president of one of the nation’s most active lenders against art predicts a sharp downturn from...

Art Funds Looking Far East
 Art Funds Looking Far East 
Mar 20, 2008 11:54 AM CDT

Art Funds Looking Far East

As West's growth slows, managers aim to buy, and sell, in China, Middle East, India

(Newser) - With major economies slowing and the US dollar near historic lows, art investment funds are looking to move away from the slowing Western art market, Bloomberg reports. Funds are sinking millions into works from China, India, and the Middle East. One leading fund has met its target for contemporary Chinese...

Getty Lands a Morbid Gauguin
 Getty Lands a Morbid Gauguin 
Mar 12, 2008 2:53 PM CDT

Getty Lands a Morbid Gauguin

LA museum buys painting of decapitation scene after 8-year search

(Newser) - The J. Paul Getty Museum has acquired an 1892 work by Paul Gauguin the Los Angeles institution's curator calls "the most famous painting by Gauguin that no one has seen," the Los Angeles Times reports. Arii Matamoe (The Royal End)—bought from a Swiss collector for an undisclosed...

Sonic Youth's Album Art for Sale
Sonic Youth's Album Art for Sale
Feb 21, 2008 11:25 AM CST

Sonic Youth's Album Art for Sale

Painting that graced classic Daydream Nation cover goes up for auction

(Newser) - Music fans for whom Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation is an all-time classic will get a chance next week to bid on the painting that served as album-cover art, the Independent reports. Kerze (Candle), a 1983 work by German Gerhard Richter, is one in a series of still lifes based on...

Gauguin Sculpture a Fake
Gauguin Sculpture a Fake
Dec 12, 2007 12:03 PM CST

Gauguin Sculpture a Fake

'The Faun' outed as impostor after decade in Chicago art museum

(Newser) - After a decade on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, a ceramic figure allegedly sculpted by Paul Gauguin was revealed yesterday to be a fake. The museum discovered 'The Faun,' a half-man, half-goat figure, to be the work not of the 19th century French artist, but of a...

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