Kobel's
Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 38 2025

The crisis in the art market is described in figures in the new Artnet Intelligence Report (PDF). In her analysis contained therein, Katya Kazakina paints a bleak picture: "The art world finds itself in a precarious position as it moves towards the second half of 2025. It seems like not a week goes by without a major gallery closing: Blum, Venus Over Manhattan and Kasmin are further prominent victims of the summer. Smaller galleries are discreetly giving up or downsizing. Each case is different, but many lament the same thing: fixed costs are ruining business. Sales are declining. It's no longer fun. Primary prices are unsustainable. Major collectors have stopped buying art or significantly reduced their spending. The next generation is not there to replace the old guard. The art world is bloated, and there is no easy way to cure the malaise." Music producer and art collector Jeff Magid, who has gained enormous reach on Instagram in recent months, suggests in one of his videos that so many critics and journalists have written off the art market because they feel excluded from the world of the rich and beautiful. Daniel Cassady offers his assessment in Artnews: "Magid has made some astute comments, but this kind of simplistic reductionism falls into the same trap as the headlines he has been criticising lately. Reporters mostly just repeat what dealers and figures tell them; it is the fast pace and restlessness of our current media landscape that causes – and promotes – a breakdown of context. The louder the headlines and memes become, the more they drown out the obvious: we've been here before. 2009 was a disastrous year. Collectors disappeared. Auction houses saw paintings that had once been fiercely bid on suddenly going under the hammer without any bids. Blue-chip names lost half their value. By 2011, the market was back to its pre-crash level, and by 2014 it had even surpassed it. The doomsayers of 2009 were left looking ridiculous just five years later. This was not an isolated case.

Bad mood everywhere? Not in Berlin, as Niklas Maak observed for the FAZ: "Miraculously, there is hardly any sign of the general gloom surrounding the art world at Berlin Art Week, which marks the start of the cultural season there. As always, the Positions fair is taking place in the halls of Hangar 7 at the former Tempelhof Airport, with 75 galleries from 19 countries represented, this time with a particularly large number from Japan. Above all, however, Berlin's galleries prove that despite the lack of high-net-worth individuals and the ritual lamentations about Berlin's decline, there is still an astonishing amount of interesting art to be found here, especially in the younger galleries.‘ However, Johannes Wendland issues a warning in the Handelsblatt: ’The quality of many of the contributions to Berlin Art Week is outstanding. It's hard to believe that this art event could be under threat. However, the previous state subsidy of €300,000 for Art Week is no longer included in Berlin's upcoming double budget. At the opening of Art Week, Senator for Culture Sarah Wedl-Wilson promised to look into the matter. As small as the amount may seem, the consequences could be far-reaching if it were to be cut." In the Tagesspiegel, Christiane Meixner comments: ‘Berlin needs a new impetus, and Art Week provides it for a comparatively small investment. To talk about the importance and appeal of art during these days and then withdraw support for it afterwards would be really cheap.’

For Monopol, Boris Pofalla strolls through Viennacontemporary: "Something is different, but what? Viennacontemporary feels airier and more pleasant than last year, demonstrating an eye for detail. The typical trade fair grid of white partition walls has been replaced by a less predictable arrangement, which is said to be reminiscent of the maze of alleys in the first district of the Austrian capital (stand design: Claudia Cavallar, winner of the Hans Hollein Art Prize for Architecture). Local restaurants, coffee roasters and ice cream makers are mixed in with the art to ensure that visitors don't forget they are in Vienna. And why should they? The city is a tourist magnet, so it can and wants to capitalise on that." Katharina Rustler summarises the state of the fair and the plans of the new director in Der Standard: "Last year, it returned to its original location in Hall D of Messe Wien, where it was last held as Viennafair in 2015. It will remain there for the time being. As reported, the VC is not in the best financial shape. Its future seems uncertain, especially in times of a troubled art market. A refreshing appearance at this year's edition would be sorely needed. […] Mirvali often uses the word “cooperation” in conversation. For her, as an American, there is no question of working with local institutions and projects. This is also set to characterise the fair in future and will certainly bring a breath of fresh air to a city where people are usually known for looking the other way. The new director believes that Vienna has not yet fully exploited the potential of a major international art fair. This could serve as a catalyst for the entire cultural ecosystem.” Nina Schedlmayer reports on the fair for the Handelsblatt: "Now, one day before the opening of Viennacontemporary, she is sitting in Hall D of the Messe Wien, in the area reserved for talks. She is bursting with energy, despite currently working 15 hours a day, and raves about the airy architecture of the exhibition stands, the curators who have designed the various sections, and the head of the tour guides who caught her eye at the Albertina in Vienna. And she seems to be thinking long-term. Of course, the financial turmoil is not yet over. Mirvali and managing director Markus Huber are hoping for financial support from the City of Vienna in 2026.

Boris Pofalla visited the Curated by gallery festival, which is taking place at the same time, for Monopol: "This year, the focus is on “fragmented subjectivity”, which, as a state of mind, has succeeded the now seemingly old-fashioned alienation. The art world is doing its utmost to produce this fragmentation: something is constantly happening, and everyone is documenting their own experiences and sharing them with others, which simultaneously fragments and multiplies perception. […] We lie in the ruins of meaning and dream. In recent years, we have often been promised identities and corresponding policies, but anyone who listens to psychoanalysis – which originated in Vienna – knows that nothing fits together from the outset. The ego is not master in its own house, to quote Freud – not even in its own gallery. External curators are invited to design the exhibitions in all 24 venues.”

I was in Vienna for the Tagesspiegel and Artmagazine.

In Italy, there is a nomadic gallery festival that Julia Stellmann visited for the FAZ: "For “Panorama”, the galleries deliberately do not travel to big cities, but instead take turns each year to exhibit in a different smaller town with a special history in one of Italy's regions. After Procida, Monopoli, L'Aquila and Monferrato, this time it's Pozzuoli in Campania. With perfect weather and a view of the gulf, “Panorama Pozzuoli” kicked off on Wednesday. On the first evening, the programme focused on Naples and new gallery exhibitions there. Among the 47 artists exhibiting in Pozzuoli are numerous Italians such as Mario Merz, Jannis Kounellis and Marino Marini – locals are traditionally very well received on the art market in the Bel Paese."

Incidentally, Tokyo Gendai was another fair reported on by Artnews: ‘More than a third of the participating galleries are newcomers this year. Magnus Renfrew, global director of organiser Art Assembly, spoke about sales at a press conference ahead of the fair. ’I think galleries decide to participate in fairs for a variety of reasons, and I think some galleries have to make short-term pragmatic decisions," Renfrew said. ‘

Christie's is closing its digital art department, Matt Medved reports first in the digital culture magazine Now Media: ’Christie's is closing its digital art department, according to sources familiar with the situation. ‘Christie's has made a strategic decision to reformat the sale of digital art. The company will continue to sell digital art within the larger category of “20th and 21st century art,”’ said a spokesperson for Christie's. Britta Bürger from Deutschlandfunk Kultur spoke with me about Christie's move and the future of NFTs (audio).

Ursula Scheer reminds us of the fleeting nature of all things digital in her commentary for the FAZ: "The speculative bubble inflated by crypto billionaires with little affinity for culture has burst, partly because tokenised digital works are by no means permanently secured in the blockchain – only their metadata is. The works themselves are stored on other decentralised networks, whose long-term existence appears questionable. Original sales platforms such as Known Origin and Makers Place collapsed in 2024.‘ Annika von Taube at Monopol (paywall) firmly believes in the future of NFTs, but not in that of the traditional art market: ’Funnily enough, help is coming from the very sector that the market has always viewed with the greatest suspicion: Digital art, which has only really been saleable since the invention of NFTs and, thanks to the speculative hype surrounding this invention, was imbued from the outset with the realisation that focusing on price records is not a sustainable long-term strategy, is currently in the process of creating a market in which sales are based more on participation than on prices. The advantage here is that formats established in the traditional market often do not work for digital art."

Sotheby's is consistently focusing on luxury goods, writes George Nelson in Artnews: "Billionaire Patrick Drahi's master plan to transform Sotheby's into a luxury retail monster will get a steroid boost in December when the auction house hosts Abu Dhabi Collectors' Week, its first series of luxury sales events in the emirate. Formula 1 cars, the fastest Aston Martin ever, huge diamonds, rare Rolex watches and lots of other expensive gems will go under the hammer from 3 to 5 December."

With the expanded annual loss reported by Robert Smith and Josh Spero in the Financial Times (paywall), the company is also in urgent need of new sources of revenue: "Sotheby's annual pre-tax loss more than doubled to $248 million in 2024 as billionaire Patrick Drahi's auction house continued to struggle with a multi-year slump in the art market. Sotheby's, which the French-Israeli telecoms mogul acquired in a leveraged buyout in 2019, slipped deeper into the red, according to financial statements filed in Luxembourg in July by the global group's parent company. The annual pre-tax loss amounted to $106 million in 2023."