Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 20 2025

Of the ‘strong sales’ promised in the headline, little remains in the trade fair report by Daniel Cassady and Karen K. Ho of Frieze New York for Artnews, apart from the usual reports of deals made by the major galleries: "But there's more in the air than just talk about the market. The aisles buzzed with conversations about the financial and political state of the world. “This week will set the tone for how the global market will behave in the coming months,” London-based adviser Arianne Piper told ARTnews. “The unfortunate truth is that the political situation has disrupted that. It's not so much the current economic situation but the fear of the economic consequences of that situation.” That said, Piper added that the people who made it out to the Frieze on Wednesday are buying. “It's not about the money. It's about the bandwidth.”"

Even the New York Times has bad days. Martha Schwendener's review of Frieze New York indulges in platitudes, followed by a list of the top six stands: 'As art fairs have proliferated, it's refreshing to find Frieze New York still presenting work that is brash or downright risky, along with elements of the resolutely blue-chip TEFAF on Park Avenue and the cool midlevel Independent in TriBeCa. While art tourists can always gorge locally on art — for example, TriBeCa Gallery Night on Friday offers more than 70 participating galleries and art spaces — Frieze is a chance to travel through the global art world without leaving Manhattan. Here are a handful of booths that show you what art still has the capacity to do."

Frauke Steffens' report on Tefaf New York for the FAZ is expected to provide information on the situation of the art market in the USA: "Although most works of art are exempt from customs duties, there is uncertainty about the situation regarding antiques and collectibles – and what Trump might decide next. The art market has been weakening recently anyway. According to the market report by Art Basel and UBS, global art sales fell by 12 per cent last year, mainly due to losses in the high-end segment. When asked how all this would affect their expectations for the fair, many foreign gallery owners remained tight-lipped. Several simply stated that they expected a successful fair and that the mood was good. German art dealers are also represented at TEFAF, with four attending this year. Since the fair on the Upper East Side is mainly attended by millionaires who live within walking distance, everything is fine here, according to the tenor of the text. A waste of reading time.

Angelica Villa describes the mood and sales at Tefaf New York as subdued at Artnews: "[Fair director Will] Korner cautioned, however, that the downturn wasn't being felt at every level of the art market. ‘We wouldn't recognise that contraction as something that goes to all of the categories,’ Korner added. He conceded that things were different this time. There were fewer objects at the fair priced higher than $10 million, he said, and sales were occurring as quickly. ‘Some people aren't travelling as much as they were two months ago,’ he said. [...] [Thaddeus] Ropac said that at Tefaf, sales happened more swiftly than the gallery initially expected, reporting that the fair has the advantage of collectors being already experienced. During other moments of the fair week, closing sales was happening more slowly, but he was remaining patient, in keeping with the pace of the moment. ‘People are taking their time.’

Anne Reimers gives the all-clear for the upcoming New York auctions in the FAZ on 10 May: "The high-calibre programme proves that consignors have not been impressed by Trump's erratic tariff decisions – and that the auction houses' efforts to convince them have been successful. More than seventy guarantees for top lots approved by Christie's and more than fifty by Sotheby's, spread across the evening auctions, are doing the rest. Christie's hopes to raise a total of 612 to 829 million dollars with a total of 687 lots in six day and evening auctions. At Sotheby's, the total expectation is between 485.1 and 673.4 million dollars, also for six auctions. Phillips hopes to raise up to 108.9 million dollars for 286 lots in the evening and day auctions."

The Handelsblatt has only one page, which Sabine Spindler fills with a preview of the top lots from German auction houses.

Richard Askwith discusses whether the major auction houses are in serious trouble in The Times from London: "Such troubles tend to feed on themselves. Moody's and S&P both rate Sotheby's bonds as junk. It is difficult to assess how fair these ratings are when the company keeps so much of its affairs private; likewise with Phillips, which appears to be sustained largely by loans from the Russian luxury retail group Mercury. (Phillips' ultimate parent company is now registered in the British Virgin Islands, while Mercury's Russian-born founders, Leonid Fridlyand and Leonid Strunin, are resident in Monaco and Cyprus respectively.) But few would dispute that — with the possible exception of the much smaller Bonhams, whose sales fell by a mere 12 per cent last year (from a record $1.14 billion in 2023) — the capital's four great auction houses, founded in central London between 1744 and 1796, are going through difficult times."

Andreas Platthgaus reports on his tour of the Spinnerei in Leipzig in the FAZ: "Last weekend, it continued with its latest edition, which was more crowded than even during the boom times of Leipzig art fifteen years ago. For the anniversary, many galleries focused on what made them famous: figurative art. […] Three female painters from Leipzig provide an insight into the breadth of what this city's art has to offer: non-representational colour field painting by Franziska Holstein at ASPN, Undine Bandelin's expressive, sarcastic social commentary at The Grass is Greener and, as a highlight of the tour, the old master Doris Ziegler at Lætitia Gorsy. In addition to unsparing self-portraits, visitors can marvel at the deserted wide-screen painting “Terra familiaris” from 2010 – this gallery presentation is an exhibition of museum quality."

The de facto closure of the National Endowment for the Arts due to budget cuts by the Trump administration led to a mass exodus of employees, report Sophia Nguyen and Janay Kingsberry in the Washington Post: ‘All 10 directors who oversee grants in various disciplines of the arts — such as museums, theatre, design, and folk and traditional arts — are leaving the agency, according to a review of emails obtained by The Washington Post as well as three people with close knowledge of the agency, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.’

The US pavilion at the Venice Biennale could turn out to be either very patriotic or completely, sums up Francesca Aton at Artnews, referring to the chaotic and repressive tendering process.

Olga Kronsteiner manages to describe Trump's taste in interior design in the Wiener Standard with almost no mockery: "Donald Trump acquired the property in 1985 and converted it into a hotel club in the mid-1990s. In 2005, he had a Louis XIV-style “Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom” added, which is now also planned as a model for an extension to the White House. British author Peter York identified this design aesthetic as typical of dictators and also of Donald Trump, arguing that old styles lend an air of respectability, especially opulent interior design styles such as those of 18th-century France." If one wanted to attribute a sense of irony to the US president, one could also call the style “camp”.

The legal dispute between David Geffen and Justin ‘Banana’ Sun over a Giacometti sculpture, reported by Daniel Cassady at Artnews, offers billionaire squabbling on reality TV level.

Céline Assimon, former CEO of diamond company De Beers, is moving to auction house Bonhams, reports Hikmat Mohammed in Women's Wear Daily (WWD). She will take on the role of Chief Commercial Officer. The role typically encompasses a company's partner and business relationships as well as product development. London-based Bonhams was founded in 1793 and has been owned by private equity firm Epiris since 2018. Chabi Nouri, who was hired as CEO last year, also came from the watch and luxury goods industry. Bonhams is thus following its two major competitors in a consistent move towards luxury and the Orient.

Koyo Kouoh, curator of the next Venice Biennale, has died. Daniel Cassady and Alex Greenberger pay tribute to the Cameroonian artist at Artnews. It is still unclear how the event will proceed.