Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 29 2024

The third and final part of the review is about the auction season. Werner Remm tells the exciting story of the rediscovered "Portrait of Miss Lieser" by Gustav Klimt, the most expensive work of art ever offered at an auction house in Austria with an estimate of 30 to 50 million, in Artmagazine: "The work itself, a prime example of a late (unfinished) Klimt, now stands on its own in all its vibrant colourfulness. While Klimt research will once again be rewritten in this regard, Miss Lieser will be travelling to Switzerland, Great Britain and Hong Kong before it goes on sale in Vienna on 24 April with an estimated price of 30 - 50 million euros. Whether it will remain in Austria permanently afterwards is rather uncertain. An export licence has been granted by the Federal Monuments Office. It is possible that the lady will accept a lucrative position as an ambassador for foreign culture." Olga Kronsteiner praises the behaviour of the consignor and auction house in the Standard: "A restitution settlement of the exemplary kind, as the research in recent months has found no evidence of a seizure, confiscation or distress sale, but the circumstances of the whereabouts during the Nazi era, after the end of the Second World War and until the 1960s could not be clarified. A search for the painting by the descendants of the former owners was never documented." For English-speaking readers, there is a version by Jo Lawson-Tancred published the following day on Artnet.

Barbara Kutscher in early February tries to read trends from Sotheby's annual figures, which are now only of limited significance due to privatisation, for the Handelsblatt: "In a difficult global political and economic environment, the house has maintained its stability and is even expanding. The old adage that investors invest in tangible goods in times of crisis is probably true. The continuing increase in new customers from Asia and the Middle East as well as the droves of 'millennials' and 'Generation Z' at least speak in favour of this. Above all, the appetite for the consumption of luxury goods continues to grow globally. This is supported by the relatively young luxury goods division, which the company has established as a separate department. It now generates sales of 2.2 billion dollars from auctions, which is more than 25 per cent of total sales." In addition, the financing business and private sales have grown strongly. The company is thus continuing to diversify from an art auction house to an all-round service provider for wealthy individuals. 

At the same time, Sotheby's is opening up the price war in terms of fees, reports Susanne Schreiber in the Handelsblatt: "The 1 per cent administration fee charged on all transactions is no longer applicable. The buyer has to pay a combined fee of 20 per cent up to the hammer price of 6 million dollars and 10 per cent for values above that. The hammer price is the net price. This is around a quarter cheaper than before, emphasises 'Sotheby's'."

Another auction house has parted company with its boss, reports Eileen Kinsella at Artnet: "Bonhams announced today that its CEO, Bruno Vinciguerra, is stepping down after more than five years in the role. Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, the auction house's executive chair, who joined its board in 2020, will take the helm on an interim basis."

With the massive reduction in premiums and discounts, Sotheby's is making a risky bet, explains Daniel Cassady at Artnews: "The Sotheby's strategy appears to be about making buyers happy. Happy buyers are motivated buyers and that, in turn, means happy sellers. But will that strategy pan out as expected? It's debatable. Finding consignors is arguably the most difficult part of the auction business. Many in the trade told ARTnews that the new fee structure, which standardises the seller's commission rate at 10 percent of the first $500,000 per lot, may off scare some prospective clients." If the calculation works out, Sotheby's is likely to experience a massive boost in sales at least this year - until Christie's and Phillips follow suit. Whether there will be more profit at the end of the day could decide the fate of the company's management.

The London auctions left a mixed impression on Stephanie Dieckvoss, despite some successes, especially for art by women. For the Handelsblatt she also meticulously records withdrawn and failed lots: "All in all, it is a confusing market in which anything seems possible. Prices are generally moderate, which is good for buyers and explains the high sales figures. There is enough money in circulation and bidders do not shy away from expensive work. This season at least, however, the hype surrounding the very young artists seems to have cooled somewhat. Instead, it may be the year of the women. It will be interesting to see what the auctions in New York will bring in May." George Nelson, who experienced a fairly tame auction for Artnews, comes to a similar conclusion.

Sotheby's April auctions in Hong Kong were a flop, says Karen K. Ho at Artnews: "To be blunt, The Now, Modern Day, and Contemporary Day sales were stories of flips that failed. Two of the top lots by estimated value were withdrawn: Nicolas Party's Still Life (2017) and KAWS's Untitled (Calvin Klein) (2000), the latter work consigned to Sotheby's by fashion designer and entrepreneur Marc Eckō after being acquired directly from KAWS. Works by Avery Singer, Nicole Eisenman, Elizabeth Peyton, Joyce Pensato, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby that appeared at auction within the last five years also failed to sell."

Christie's has been the victim of a hacker attack. Zachary Small reports in the New York Times: “Edward Lewine, a Christie's spokesman, said that a security issue had affected some of the company's systems, including its website. ‘We are taking all necessary steps to manage this matter, with the engagement of a team of additional technology experts,’ he said in a statement. 

Summing up the auction week in New York, Barbara Kutscher in the Handelsblatt gives the all-clear: ‘The positive flip side of the coin: the houses did not have to authorise massive guarantee sums to lure collections away from the competition. After the first three evening auctions at Sotheby's, Phillips and Christie's this week, it must be said that the auction houses have their finger firmly on the pulse of the market under difficult market conditions. The excellent sales rates of around 90 per cent are proof of this.’“ The best summary of the evening auction at Sotheby's is provided by Karen K. Ho and Alex Greenberger at Artnews: „After three hours, anyone who stayed until the end of the sale was probably hungry. But instead of the usual assortment of cheese, crackers, and charcuterie available for guests, there were only empty champagne glasses. When ARTnews asked a Sotheby's staffer about this change, they simply replied, ‘The market has changed.’“

End of May, Christie's has announced that it will almost completely abandon its June auctions in London with immediate effect, reports Stephanie Dieckvoss in the Handelsblatt: “According to Keith Gill, head of department at Christie's, the house wants to attract customers in the summer with unusual, innovative auctions, as he explains to Handelsblatt. The reorganisation is also strategic. ‘The June season has not been cancelled. But we are thinking globally about when and where we organise which auctions. We will soon be opening our own auction rooms in Hong Kong. We are therefore also considering New York, Paris and London. The October auctions in London, which we have expanded, were very successful, as was this year's March auction.”

Meanwhile, Sotheby's is said to be planning massive redundancies, especially in London, report Kabir Jhala and Anny Shaw in The Art Newspaper: “According to four anonymous sources, around 50 people are due to leave the firm in London. Further layoffs are expected at Sotheby's New York and its European locations, but The Art Newspaper understands Sotheby's UK workforce will be particularly affected.”

With one exception, the German auctions in June were mixed. At Grisebach in Berlin, Christian Herchenröder identifies weaknesses in the Handelsblatt: ‘This is a sign of economic restraint, but probably even more a consequence of the weakness in materials, which this time had a more pronounced effect than usual on the supply in all sectors. The collection of drawings by the retired dealer Rudolf Zwirner, auctioned for a total of 670,000 euros, was a ray of hope among the consignments. But the ‘Selected Works’ auction, with its 34 mixed lots, 16 of which fell, was unable to sweep anyone off their feet. Christian Herchenröder also reports on Lempertz in Cologne in the same place: ‘However, 30 of 70 catalogue numbers were rejected - including the double-sided painting by Max Pechstein as the main lot. It should have fetched up to 800,000 euros. Collectors and dealers were very selective. Time and again, there were tight bidding stretches in which 17 lots fetched significantly more than their estimate. This was achieved by another major work of the evening: Heinrich Campendonk's ‘Reclining Nude’ from 1917, which enticed with its strong red tones, encouraged three bidders to place 996,000 euros with premium. The buyer is a collector from the Rhineland." Christiane Fricke, also for the Handelsblatt, takes a closer look at the auction at Van Ham in Cologne: ‘Auctioneer Markus Eisenbeis only considered 41 lots interesting enough to include them in the prestigious event. Of these, nine, i.e. not quite a quarter, were returned. ‘By our modest standards, we are extremely satisfied,’ explained Eisenbeis, however, alluding to the market situation and referring to the figures: a relatively high sales rate of 78 per cent compared to the competition in Berlin and Cologne and a turnover of just over six million euros including buyer's premium. According to Eisenbeis, the lower estimate price had been around six million euros." Ketterer in Munich took the crown (once again) with a ‘superlative auction’, as Sabine Spindler and Susanne Schreiber headlined in the Handelsblatt. The top lot ‘Tanz im Varieté’ by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, which had been announced long in advance, realised seven million euros. "This surprisingly high hammer price for Germany was even surpassed. The top lot from the catalogue title, Alexej Jawlensky's ‘Spanish Dancer’, fell at seven million euros, the lower estimate. With buyer's premium, that is 8,338,000 euros,’ write the authors.

The auction of Rosa de la Cruz's estate was a colossal flop, Scott Reyburn proofs in The Art Newspaper. He sees the flop as a sign of a larger development: "Over the next 20 years or so in the US, there is estimated to be an intergenerational transfer of as much as $84 trillion in assets to people born between 1965 and 2012-that is, mainly from the Baby Boomers to Generation X, the millennials and Gen Z, according to Cerulli Associates, a financial research and consultancy firm. The art world has been hoping the 'great wealth transfer' will not only make many esteemed private collections available, but that it will also give a new generation of buyers the riches to pay huge prices for art, just as their forebears did. But this win-win scenario also assumes an intergenerational transfer of cultural values. The sobering fate of the Rosa de la Cruz collection [...], suggests this might not necessarily be the case."