Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 14 2025

If you know how to decode the language of the art market, you will notice that the usually rosy fair reports in the relevant media are unusually restrained when it comes to this year's Art Basel Hong Kong. Harrison Jacobs observes for Artnews: ‘At the blue-chip and mega-galleries, sales were swift, with many works pre-sold or already on hold by the time the figurative starting bell rang at 12 pm. But, in conversations with dealers at around a dozen small- and medium-size galleries, most relayed that they had sold only a few middle-tier or lower-priced works by the end of the day. ‘This is not a first-day fair,’ a sales director of a US-based gallery told me, before asking if I might wait to write the sales report until later in the fair, which runs until Sunday.’ Vivienne Chow and Cathy Fan manage to squeeze a critical sentence into the middle of the text at Artnet (possibly paywalled): ‘A number of galleries from Asia and the West said that they were happy with the first day of the fair, though some said that sales were moving slowly. Most dealers played safe with their choice of works. Blue-chip outfits reported solid sales.’ In The Art Newspaper, Kabir Jhala and Lisa Movius point out a changing collector base: ‘The presence of new collectors may have helped to revive some of ABHK's pre-pandemic vigour, but it has also emphasised how much has changed since the massive sales and frenzied energy of China's 2010s boom. Spending from the mainland, the driving force of that phenomenon, is still down: reports from numerous gallerists of less Mandarin being spoken at their stands is matched by the latest auction data for that region, where sales dropped by 41% in 2024, according to a recent ArtTactic report. But signs of recovery are visible, albeit in a more restrained approach than before.’ In the FAZ on 29 March, Laura Helena Wurth emphasised the importance of the ABHK for the wider region: ‘A large proportion of the collectors who have travelled here come from Thailand, Singapore or the Philippines and are not affected by the trade conflict between the United States and China. Nevertheless, sales are slowly picking up. Art Basel Hong Kong is a marathon, explains an American gallerist. Many customers don't make a purchase on the first day of the fair, but come several times before deciding to buy, in the best case. A total of 240 galleries from 42 countries are represented, with 23 exhibitors attending for the first time. This is a good sign for Hong Kong as an art centre, which is facing the effects of a tightened security law against critics of the Chinese central government.’

The auction at Christie's in Hong Kong seems to confirm the somewhat cautious impression, according to the report by Ilaria Maria Sala at Artnews: ‘While the room was filled to capacity, the pace of Friday's evening sales was a bit slower, totalling $73.3 million (including buyer's premium), with few surprises. The sale was said and done in just over an hour. Though it carried a 95 percent sell-through rate on 43 lots, most hammered at the low-end of their pre-sale estimates, with the aggregate hammer price sitting 6 percent above the sale's low estimate. Cristian Albu, Christie's deputy chairman and head of contemporary art for Asia Pacific, said in a post-sale press conference that those figures indicated the works on offer were ‘responsibly priced for this market,’ despite ‘some challenges in sourcing.’

The two concurrent fairs Salon du Dessin and Drawing Now in Paris are a successful duo, according to Bettina Wohlfarth of the FAZ: ‘Initially, each show had its own audience. Now, a growing audience of interested parties, private and institutional collectors, are taking an interest in the drawings at both fairs. And because art begins with drawing, they have become a school of seeing. While at Drawing Now you can buy works by young artists for as little as three or four hundred euros, at the Salon du Dessin prices start at several thousands.’ Alexandra Wach, writing for the Tagesspiegel (paywall), is still raving after her visit to the salon: ‘The exhibition in the former Paris stock exchange at the Palais Brongniart is unique. Not least because the rush at the stand walls means that collectors and international museum representatives have to fight in the narrow booths to be able to stretch their necks very close to the fragile papers.’ The Handelsblatt is content with a preview by Aurelié Tanaqui.

After the art market was completely omitted from the print edition of the Handelsblatt last week, this weekend's lead consists of a text that has already been online for a month.

The popularity of the entry-level segment is encouraging, believes Carlie Porterfield after visiting the New York print fairs at The Art Newspaper (possibly paywall): ‘Three years after the downturn in the global art market, fairs and dealers dedicated to printmaking say that works on paper are faring better than other media and have even managed to attract the attention of a new group of collectors. The phenomenon was most visible on Thursday (27 March) at the VIP opening of the International Fine Print Dealers Association's (IFPDA) annual print fair [...] ‘Although there has been some softening at the top of the market, people look at the evening sales and make these dire predictions,’ Jenny Gibbs, executive director of the IFPDA, told The Art Newspaper. ‘What we see in our segment of the market is incredible growth. We had more registrations for this fair than in many, many years before.’’

Marina Abaramović has announced a new NFT project after three years, which Louis Jebb presents in The Art Newspaper (possibly paywall).

According to a press release, last week the federal, state and local governments signed an administrative agreement to establish an arbitration court for Nazi-looted art: ‘The reform is intended to simplify and improve the return of Nazi-looted art. Important changes include the option of unilateral appeal by those entitled to file a claim, as well as greater legal certainty through the binding nature of the decisions of the Arbitration Court on Nazi-Confiscated Art. The rules of evidence of the Arbitration Court on Nazi-Confiscated Art enable just and fair solutions for cases that are still open today, almost 80 years after the end of the war.’

The Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) has discovered its backbone, according to a report by Ulrich Raphael Firsching at kunstmarkt.com: ‘Following the attack on academic freedom, the American president is now attacking independent museums, emphasised Hermann Parzinger, the incumbent president of the Prussia Foundation, and his designated successor Marion Ackermann. ‘In free societies, we engage in discourse, discuss things, but we do not allow decrees to determine what is thought and shown’’.

The new director of the Frieze Masters is Emanuela Tarizzo, I report at Artmagazine.