Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 11 2025

Paul Ingendaay sees Arco in Madrid as being well positioned in his fair report for the FAZ. However, VAT is also an issue here: ‘The dispute over Spanish VAT on the purchase of works of art remains unresolved. López complains that the 21 per cent in Spain – compared to seven per cent in Germany and 5.5 per cent in France – creates unequal competition among gallery owners. In protest, the Spanish galleries switched off the lights for a few minutes on Wednesday. The director believes that the government should accommodate the domestic art trade by reducing the rate to ten or even four per cent. I was in Madrid for Handelsblatt and Artmagazine.

The mid-season sales in London were more successful than those in New York the week before. In the Handelsblatt, Stephanie Dieckvoss summarises: ‘Sotheby's Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction, with only 38 lots, brought in £62.5 million. The overall sell-through rate was a high 90 per cent. Christie's also had a strong result: the main sale of 48 lots raised £82.2 million, with a sell-through rate of 94 per cent. Added to this were the excellent results of the subsequent Surrealism auction. Here, only one of the 25 lots remained unsold. The auction raised just over £48 million.’ George Nelson singles out the Surrealism auction at Christie's in his post-auction review for Artnews: ‘Olivier Camu, the house's deputy chairman of impressionist and modern art, told ARTnews he believed it was the house's most successful Surrealist sale ever. ‘All of the stars aligned,’ he said.’ In The Art Newspaper, Scott Reyburn compares the results of the two auctions: ‘Despite the outside world's continuing slide into geopolitical chaos, the mood—and the numbers—in the international art market were given a definite lift last night in London as Christie's turned over £130.3m (with fees) at a marathon double-header auction of 20th and 21st century and Surrealist art. The total was more than double the £62.5m (with fees) achieved the previous evening at Sotheby's rival sale of Modern and contemporary works. But with its 72 lots, divided between separate 20/21 and Surrealist sessions, Christie's was also able to offer almost twice as much material (compared to just 38 lots the night before). The auction took almost three hours. Just four works failed to sell, as had been the case at Sotheby's.’

Min Chen at Artnet embraces Christie's view that its controversial AI auction was a success: ‘In all, 28 of the 34 lots sold, with some works, including those by Botto, Jake Elwes, and Pinder Van Arman, failing to find buyers. According to Christie's, the auction saw many new and young bidders. Some 37 percent of them were first-timers at the auction house, and almost half were Millennials and Gen Z.’ However, the results also included some ‘bargains’, and a single lot was responsible for over a third of the total result of $728,000 (including commission). On the other hand, the auction was not a complete failure, as the upper estimate of $600,000 (excluding commission) was almost reached. In an article not attributed to a particular author, Deutschlandfunk comes to a different conclusion: the auction ‘mostly fell short of expectations. Of the 34 lots, 14 either received no valid bids or sold for less than their pre-sale estimates. One work sold for more than its pre-sale estimate.’ In fact, there were five. If you take agency reports at face value, you should at least mark them as such. Otherwise, they could be mistaken for an editorial contribution.

Artnews has selected the ‘100 best works of art of the 21st century’. Seriously.

US customs policy could well damage its own art market, reports Kate Brown for Artnet (possible paywall) from her native Canada: ‘Dealers are weighing their options. One based in Toronto said that they may focus on fairs beyond the U.S. or exhibit artists based in the U.S. or Europe when they do attend U.S. fairs. Wil Aballe, of Wil Aballe Art Projects is based in Vancouver, said he hit pause on U.S. art fairs. The gallery has been focusing on shows and art fairs in Europe, largely in Belgium and Germany.’ Karen K. Ho also takes up the topic at Artnews: ‘If gallerists and art professionals were hoping 2025 would be a return to normalcy for the art world, the trade war has scuppered that notion. Dealers, museum directors, art fair directors, and art shippers told ARTnews that they are scrambling to adjust operations and understand the impact of the tariffs on future sales and acquisitions. The tariffs, they said, make the cost and process of selling, transporting, and exhibiting art significantly more complicated, expensive, and uncertain, especially after galleries spend months planning their participation in art fairs like Art Basel Hong Kong, Independent, and Frieze New York.’ She also lists some of the rules that applied at the beginning of last week. However, since the US government is currently acting like a five-year-old given a sugar-coated espresso, these are already obsolete. But that could change at any time.

The concerns of the Italian art trade in view of the likely failure to reduce VAT are described by Silvia Anna Barillà in Die Welt: ‘The art trade had expected more support from the Meloni government, which is preaching tax cuts and corporate support. “Culture is Italy's oil, that's the slogan everyone can agree on,” commented Michele Casamonti of Tornabuoni Art. But private companies in the cultural sector continue to be hindered in their development: ‘In fact, we are stifling a sector that everyone says is vital.’ The anger stems from the fact that the sector's cultural work is not being recognised. Galleries are not simple commercial enterprises. Art is not a luxury good. That, in a nutshell, is the tenor. The danger also lies in the fact that the failure to reduce taxes fuels the black market.'

A Tefaf seminar is designed to provide museum people with the necessary market knowledge, reports Ted Loos in the New York Times: ‘The five-day course – unusual for an art fair – is intended for what TEFAF calls “emerging” curators. It includes lectures, panel discussions and mentoring sessions on topics ranging from insuring artworks to negotiating and fund-raising to acquire them, as well as a peek into TEFAF's process for vetting objects. The curators' museums pick up their expenses for the trip; there is no charge for the course itself. The idea is that although curators have expertise about the importance and history of the objects in their charge, some savvy about the buying and selling process is necessary when it comes to making acquisitions for their museums.’ What is actually taught in curatorial studies at universities and academies?

When buying older works of art, collectors should not just rely on the dealer or auction house, but should do their own research, advises Nina Siegal in the New York Times: ‘To avoid buying a work of art with a problematic history, and to guard against potential future claims, art provenance specialists say it is crucial to do some digging before you buy. Although new information comes to light every day, the best way to protect yourself is to ask the right questions, request as much data as possible, and independently verify that the information you get is accurate and up-to-date.’

I describe the course and background of the Artnet AG Annual General Meeting in detail in the Handelsblatt (paywall). However, a lot has happened since then. As can be seen from the mandatory disclosures, Galerie Neuendorf AG has 600,000 shares to former Goldman Sachs banker and existing Artnet shareholder Andrew E. Wolff – on the day of the Annual General Meeting.

Georg Imdahl reports in the FAZ on the relocation of Galerie Max Mayer from Düsseldorf to Berlin.