Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 2 2025

In the second half of the year, the auction market was still characterised by regionally different trends, as the third and final part of this review shows.

Susanne Schreiber followed Christie's conference call on its half-year results in mid-July for the Handelsblatt: "Christie's CEO Guillaume Cerutti's video call with trade journalists had one message above all: to spread calm and confidence at a time when auction sales have plummeted. Between January and June 2024, this fell by 22 per cent to 2.1 billion dollars. In the same period last year, it was still 2.7 billion dollars. This is due to the challenging macroeconomic environment, wars, crises and uncertainty factors. A number of collectors willing to sell had therefore withdrawn their consignments and postponed them until the autumn. Nevertheless, Cerutti emphasises, not without pride: ‘Christie's performance was stable. That means there is no reason to panic." Ursula Scheer commented in the FAZ on 20 July: “His word in God's ear, those who currently fear for their jobs at the international auction house or its competitors may think, because the company's figures announced at a press conference point clearly downwards”. Christie's should actually be able to ride out the current market situation, as the company belongs to the empire of François Pinault, who, according to Forbes, is currently the 73rd richest person in the world.

Meanwhile, Sotheby's is enhancing its Paris location by acquiring a prestigious property, reports Stephanie Dieckvoss in the Handelsblatt: “It seems as if owner Patrick Drahi places more value on first-class buildings than on employees. As if he relies more on the potential of property than on expertise. Sotheby's is opening new premises in Hong Kong in July. Next year, it will move into the Breuer Building in New York, which was long home to the Whitney Museum of American Art. And now it has invested in a large property in the heart of Paris. It remains to be seen whether this calculation will work out in the ailing auction business, which is often described as a ‘people business’."

According to Susanne Schreiber in the Handelsblatt, German auction houses are doing well: “At the end of a robust spring auction, Van Ham is reporting brilliant figures, as expected. Like Germany's top auction house Ketterer, Van Ham is on the upswing and is defying the trend towards restraint. With a total result of around 26 million euros in the first half of 2024, Managing Director Markus Eisenbeis sees himself in second place in the national ranking. [...] The position at the top of the German auction houses is once again held by Ketterer Kunst. The Munich-based company is reluctant to disclose much on request, but only this much: with valuable books, private sales and all art auctions, the total turnover for the first half of the year was 54 million euros. The evening auction at the beginning of June alone brought in 40.6 million euros."

Olga Kronsteiner complains in the Standard that the Vienna Dorotheum may have problems complying with money laundering regulations in terms of customer identification: “However, research suggests that the auction house is more likely to comply with the legal requirements than to fulfil them: A weak point in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, but above all with regard to possible manipulation, as experts involved in the matter confirm. [...] Why is all this relevant? Leonard Rosen does not exist, he is a fictitious ‘German citizen’ who registered as a customer at Dorotheum and overcame the identity check with an AI-generated driving licence, the authenticity of which was not checked at all. Confronted with these facts and the associated criticism, the auction house reacted cautiously: It ‘will investigate and press criminal charges’ - on the basis of which criminal offence remains unclear."

Philipps reported the smallest drop in sales among the Big Three at seven per cent, explains Ursula Scheer in the FAZ on 27 July: "The company, which belongs to the Russian Mercury Group and has raised doubts about its future competitiveness following Putin's launch of the war of aggression against Ukraine, is presenting itself with corresponding self-confidence. Edward Dolman, Managing Director of the company, writes in a press release of ‘strength and adaptability’. With a stable sales rate of 87 per cent, 41 per cent first-time buyers and 26 per cent of bidders from Generation Z and the Millennial age cohort, he is optimistic."

Aurélie Tanaqui summarises the auction season in France for the Handelsblatt: "Christie's accounts for nine of the ten highest hammer prices in France. With a turnover of 203 million euros, Christie's in Paris ranks first among the individual companies. This is significantly better than in the same period last year, when 114 million euros were reported. [...] Competitor Sotheby's auctioned seven important collections in the first half of the year. Sales totalled 133 million euros, slightly less than the 153 million euros in the previous year. Another 39 million euros came from private sales. The proportion of new customers was 20.6 per cent. Artcurial is in third place with a turnover of 121 million euros. Followed by Bonhams. The English auction house recorded 74 million euros with 53 auctions, spread across Paris, Brussels and Monaco."

Monopol takes a look at Manager Magazin's art index in early August: "With a turnover of 586 million US dollars, works by Pablo Picasso are at the top of the ranking. Jean Michel Basquiat (238 million) follows in second and third place and the only German artist in the top 50 is the painter Gerhard Richter (214 million dollars). Overall, the list is dominated by US artists, with Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly among the top 20 most valuable artists."

Abu Dhabi is buying into Sotheby's, the investment firm ADQ announced in a press release: "Under the terms of the agreement, ADQ will acquire newly issued shares of Sotheby's to reduce leverage and support the company's growth and innovation plans. Patrick Drahi, who acquired Sotheby's in 2019, will also invest additional capital alongside ADQ and remain Sotheby's majority owner. The total amount of investment is approximately $1 billion."

The big auction houses in Hong Kong are testing out innovative business ideas, reports Ernst Herb in late August in the FAZ: "The auctioneers’ expansion course would hardly be conceivable without the rising supply and falling demand in what was until recently the world's most expensive property market. Landmark and Henderson Land, the new landlords of Sotheby's and Christie's, are feeling the effects of the drastic increase in the number of empty properties, particularly in the top price segment of commercial property. Industry experts assume that the auction houses have been granted considerable price reductions as flagship tenants. This is not the only thing strengthening the most important location for the art trade in Asia. Other major cities in the region - such as Shanghai, Seoul or Singapore - would like to push Hong Kong off the pedestal. However, the semi-autonomous Chinese territory is likely to remain number one for the time being, primarily because it has a large free port where works of art can be imported and exported duty-free and unbureaucratically like nowhere else in Asia."

A month after Sotheby's announced plans to expand in Saudi Arabia as part of a cash injection from Abu Dhabi, Christie's is now pulling ahead of its competitors and holding auctions there, reports Kabir Jhala in The Art Newspaper.

Sotheby's cash injection from the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund should only give a brief respite, as can be seen from Madeline Fitzgerald's report for Quartz: “At Sotheby's, the situation is so dire that some executives questioned whether the auction house would be able to continue paying employees on time. Their alarm was not entirely unfounded: In the spring, some staffers received promissory notes in place of incentive pay. The auction house is also as much as six months behind on payments to art shippers and conservators, according to the Wall Street Journal [paywall] report. Since Drahi first purchased Sotheby's in 2019, the auction house's debt has nearly doubled – it ballooned from $1 billion to $1.8 billion.”

Christiane Fricke was in the room at Van Ham in Cologne to follow the auction of the Kasper König collection for the Handelsblatt: “Johann König, the youngest of the four children, makes frequent use of it, only occasionally curbed by his wife. His brother Leo, a gallery owner in New York, is seated in front of him this evening. However, according to Eisenbeis, he bids on behalf of clients. He has an American couple sitting next to him. The hall is full. There are onlookers, knowledgeable observers such as art consultant Jörg Michael Bertz and collector Reiner Speck, but also many collectors of all ages with bidder numbers. It's rare to see so much activity in an auction room.” dpa reports: “A total of 250 works changed hands, raising around six million euros, according to the Van Ham auction house. This corresponds to a sales quota of 234 per cent by value. The collection went under the hammer from Tuesday evening onwards.”

The season's opening of auctions in New York with smaller events could be a bad omen for the upcoming evening events, fears Angelica Villa at Artnews.

London auction houses will have to wrap up warmly for the autumn season, writes Anne Reimers in the FAZ on 5 October: “It is striking that this time around, unlike the usual Frieze season, Christie's and Sotheby's in the British capital are not focusing on young contemporary art. High-priced young art is seen as a risky investment, and high interest rates are deterring buyers who want to make a quick profit. Established artists with a long career or a complete body of work are in demand in uncertain times.” I summarise the current state of the Sotheby's drama for the Handelsblatt.

Scratching the lower estimate sums seems to be considered a success in London, as suggested by the headline of Anne Reimer's follow-up report in the FAZ: “A breath of optimism wafts through the auction halls”. She does the auction houses a favour by not calculating the premium from the results, although it is not included in the communicated estimated price sums. Stephanie Dieckvoss also gives the all-clear in the Handelsblatt, after pointing out the weakness of the individual auctions in detail.

The autumn auctions in Paris, which were accompanied by high expectations, were a flop, notes Bettina Wohlfarth in the FAZ: “At the high-profile autumn auctions, which were held in mid-October concurrently with the Art Basel Paris fair, François Pinault's auction house did indeed offer the largest selection among the major auctioneers and generated the highest turnover. A total of 82.2 million euros was raised in in-house and online auctions. In the peak year 2023, the total result was still 126.7 million. [...] Sotheby's auction of works by Joseph Beuys from the Jörg Schellmann collection was not very successful. Of the 27 lots, ten did not find buyers, including major works”.

Sotheby's auction debut at its new Hong Kong location did not go particularly well, reports Margaret Carrigan at Artnet (paywall): "A Mark Rothko painting that once belonged to the fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong this week for HK$252.5 million ($32.5 million), including fees. That figure is roughly 30 percent lower than its previous auction price a decade ago. [...] The Rothko was not the only disappointment at Sotheby's first marquee sale in its new Hong Kong headquarters. Of 35 lots on offer, seven were withdrawn in advance, suggesting a lack of buyer interest, and another five went unsold, yielding a sell-through rate of 65 percent."

Barbara Kutscher summarises the whole November auction week in New York for the Handelsblatt: “The houses had entered the race cautiously with a reduced volume. In total, the duopoly took in over 908 million dollars (gross) in the five evening auctions from Monday to Wednesday. Above all, market-fresh works from estates sold well in a fickle market that only appreciates the exceptional. The highlight of the week and probably of the whole year was the competition for René Magritte's painting ‘L'Empire des Lumières’, which is certainly one of the most famous motifs by the Belgian surrealist. He had varied it seventeen times over sixteen years, but today we also know it from posters or shopping bags. [...] After ten minutes, Rotter was able to congratulate his client. He had set a new artist's record at $121.2 million gross.” Katya Kazakina takes an analytical look at the auction week at Artnet (possibly paywall): "The total haul so far is $1.2 billion, just clearing the low end of the week's presale range. That total includes buyer's premiums, while the estimates do not. And it does not reflect all the drama and auction wizardry that happened behind the scenes to achieve such relatively positive optics. Reserves were lowered at the 11th hour, irrevocable bids negotiated within minutes of sales, some lots withdrawn, and others reopened after having failed to sell. The houses deserve credit for pulling it off."

As in New York, the German auctions also showed light and shadow. At least the million-dollar lots were sold at least at their estimated prices almost everywhere. Christian Herchenröder reports for the Handelsblatt from Lempertz in Cologne: “Many hammer prices remained at the lower estimates, but there were encouraging telephone and online bids in the well-attended hall. According to the auction house, 77 lots raised 9.4 million euros. Together with the day auctions, the total revenue for photography, modern and contemporary art was 12.5 million euros. Henrik Hanstein describes this as ‘a good result in view of the world situation. Buyers are going for safe bets that have international standing’.”

According to Christiane Fricke in the Handelsblatt, for Van Ham in Cologne, probably not least due to some over-optimistic estimates: „According to our own calculations, the hammer prices for the 39 lots add up to 3.8 million euros. It should have been more. If you add up the lower estimates, you get 4.6 million euros. The auction house reports a gross turnover of 5.2 million euros for the evening sale. It looks better that way, of course. Van Ham reports a total turnover of 10.2 million euros gross, including the day auctions, i.e. including the buyer's premium.“

Brita Sachs saw positive signals from the auction results at Ketterer in Munich for the FAZ: “It may have been a case of forced optimism that Ketterer was unconcerned before the “Evening Sale” of modern and contemporary art. In fact, however, there seems to be a slight refreshing movement in the art market doldrums. The hammer fell three times for hammer prices in the millions, with the highest expected for Max Beckmann's painting ‘Large Clown with Women and Small Clown’. Created in 1950, it reflects Beckmann's situation between exile and emigration to America. It now rose to three million euros (estimate 1.4 to 1.8 million euros). Including the premium, it will cost its new owner – a ‘significant European collection’ – 3.7 million.” Sabine Spindler looks at post-war art for the Handelsblatt: “On 6 December, the painting was one of four lots sold for over a million euros. The figure is remarkable in view of the current crisis in Germany.‘ Another seven-figure sum was attained by Robert Ryman's “General 52” x 52’' of 1970, a painting built up layer by layer of lacquer. It fetched 1.3 million euros. Like all Ryman paintings, it is a reflection on the colour white and on painting itself. In this case, Germany beat the United States. ‘The international avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s is very important to us, as it provides us with a global collector base,’ auctioneer Robert Ketterer told Handelsblatt. And every auction house needs such collectors as they are potent bidders in the high-price range.”

The dismissal of around 100 Sotheby's employees in New York was reported by Katya Kazakina at Artnet (possibly Paywall) and Karen K. Ho at Artnews.