Kobel's
Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 4 2025

The dance on the volcanic ash is taking place. Matt Stromberg brings the good news at Hyperallergic: ‘Perhaps the biggest question lingering in the air was about the fate of the fair week's behemoth, Frieze, which tends to have a much larger proportion of international and non-local participants than the smaller fairs. On Friday afternoon, January 17, the fair finally sent an email announcing that its sixth edition, set to open February 20, would go forth as planned. Felix Art Fair, which takes place at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel again this year, is also scheduled to move forward.’ In an open letter published by Harrison Jacobs at Artnews, the Los Angeles gallery association calls on readers to participate in the fair and visit exhibitions, as well as to buy art.

In the run-up to the third edition of the Art SG fair, Lisa Movius portrays the Singapore location in The Art Newspaper: ‘While Singapore's art punches up for its size, with a population of 6 million, its market is also fuelled by its regional positioning. It particularly draws from the rest of Nusantara, also comprising Indonesia and Malaysia, which have vibrant artist and collector scenes but fewer institutions. The wider region of Southeast Asia looks to Singapore as its most developed centre, and the city-state also enjoys strong ties with East Asia and the West—particularly Australia.’ Karen K. Ho presents her picks for the best booths at Art SG at Artnews. Economically, the fair was probably not a resounding success this year either, according to the same author at Artnews: ‘By the end of Thursday's VIP Day, several galleries had reported works sold, and the exhibition floor was filled with people up until the 9 p.m. closing time. However, despite the strong attendance and a wave of inquiries, many galleries reported selling very few or no artworks by the end of the day Friday, further highlighting how different the local art market is compared to those in the US, Western Europe, and Hong Kong, as well as the ongoing uncertainty in the market.’ Hendrik Ankenbrand reports a similar story in the FAZ on 18 January: ’Art SG is in the process of establishing itself. But the numbers that the founder had announced after the first day do not confirm this. The organisers even mentioned the sale of an ink drawing for $9000. In the run-up to the fair, gallery owners had complained that Asians were coming to the fair and asking for a Picasso without giving any further details.’

Sabine Spindler explains the dire state of the market for Asian art in German-speaking countries on the basis of the past auction year for the Handelsblatt: ‘China's saturated collector base and the thinning supply in the top segment have cooled the market for Chinese art. Auction houses that do not acquire in China itself or in top American collections feel the effect of this double helix all the more clearly. This also applies to the auctioneers Nagel in Stuttgart, Lempertz in Cologne and Koller in Zurich.’

Sotheby's is offering jewels, handbags, art and used sports equipment at its first auction in Saudi Arabia. Elisa Carollo presents the wild mix in the Observer.

Susanne Schreiber explains the personnel reshuffle at the helm of the Pinault empire from Frenchman Guillaume Cerutti to American Bonnie Brennan as CEO of the auction house Christie's in the Handelsblatt. Ursula Scheer of the FAZ: ‘This includes the presidency of the Pinault Collection, which comprises more than 10,000 works and has its own museum, the Bourse de Commerce in Paris. In this role, Cerutti succeeds none other than the art-loving and business-savvy billionaire Pinault himself, who, as founder of the collection, becomes its honorary president.’

Art Dubai has hired two former Art Basel employees, Alexie Glass-Kantor and Dunja Gottweis, reports Daniel Cassady at Artnews.

Photography is still excluded from the reduced VAT rate. Julia Stellmann attempts to explain why this is the case in the FAZ: ‘Hamburg art dealer Thole Rotermund, a member of the board of the BVDG, explains that preferential taxation for artistic photography is nevertheless in principle in line with EU law. This ‘discretionary rule’ is used in France, for example. In Germany, it is opposed mainly for reasons of practicality. This is because every customs officer and tax authority employee must be able to answer the question ‘What is art?’ precisely. ‘So it is exclusively for reasons of official uncertainty and demarcation, which are difficult to resolve in this context,’ concludes Rotermund.’

And yet another corporate collection is being broken up, reports Ursula Scheer in the FAZ: ‘The reason given by Bayer AG for parting with its classic and representative works of modern and contemporary art is the change in the “way in which and where people work together in companies”. This also has an effect on how art is displayed in the workplace. However, the company's “modern office landscapes” should “continue to offer space for young art”. Works by artists sponsored by Bayer and the company's historical collection will not be sold.’ It would, of course, be nice if the proceeds were not used to pad the petty cash of a company with a disastrous recent economic record, but were instead reinvested in young art.

In an interview with Saskia Trebing for Monopol, collector Timo Miettinen explains what drives him: ‘I handed over my company shares to my children and have now been not only a collector but also a salonier in Charlottenburg for over ten years. This is a great privilege and brings me into contact with a wide variety of people. Art brings us all together. It is important to me that the collection is alive and can also be seen by the public.’

René Benko sold a Picasso through Sotheby's for far less than the original price, reports Olga Kronsteiner in Der Standard: ‘When just under eleven million euros are transferred to the account of Laura AAA Kunst GmbH & Co KG in the next few days, it will be up to the Benko family to decide whether they are pleased with this cash injection. As reported, this subsidiary of the Laura Privatstiftung commissioned Sotheby's to privately sell a painting by Pablo Picasso in October. According to information obtained by DER STANDARD, this deal has recently been wrapped up. The auction house itself does not comment on such ‘private sales’.’ He paid 18.32 million euros at Christie's in London in 2021, a private foundation of the family netted 10.68 million. Nevertheless, it was not a bad deal for the Benkos, since the money goes to them and not to the bankrupt estate of the Signa ruin.

Ron Rivlin, owner of the Revolver Gallery in Los Angeles, which specialises in Warhol, tells Matt Stevens and Julia Jacobs in the New York Times about the loss of his art collection in the fire at his private residence: ‘Rivlin estimated that more than 200 artworks had been burned in his home, with the losses amounting to millions of dollars. He said he had made the initial insurance claim on the lost works. Many art insurers are bracing for potential large losses. In Los Angeles, where the threat of wildfires is always a concern, museums go to great lengths to protect their collections. [...] But private art collections like Rivlin's tend to be more vulnerable. And the scope of the art losses in private homes is only beginning to come into view.’

Douglas Chrismas, the founder of the former Ace Gallery in Los Angeles, has been sentenced to prison for embezzlement and bankruptcy fraud, reports Jori Finkel in the New York Times: ‘Mr Chrismas, 80, helped build the Los Angeles art scene of the 1970s and ’80s through ambitious exhibitions at his gallery, Ace. But he was plagued by lawsuits from artists and landlords over lack of payment, with even Andy Warhol in a 1979 diary entry describing lack of compensation for sales. Mr. Chrismas has spent much of the last decade embroiled in prolonged bankruptcy proceedings.’

The closure of the Swiss gallery Falk Weiss is reported by Monopol. The gallery, which opened in 2016, had participated in the Liste in Basel six times, among other things.