Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 3 2024

There has rarely been so much clashing of dates. It all starts with artgenève and Brafa at the end of January, which open on the same day. This will be followed by a late Arco Madrid with Tefaf in Maastricht at the beginning of March, Expo Chicago and Art Düsseldorf in April and Art Cologne in November, which has positioned itself immediately after Artissima in Turin, which is particularly popular with the European avant-garde galleries that are urgently needed in Cologne. This raises the question of how important the art fair is to the Cologne trade fair company. After smashing porcelain by clashing with Art Brussels years ago and burying Cologne Fine Art recently, there is no need to put roller skates on the elephant now.

Among the eleven cultural trends of the past year that Christy Choi and Oscar Holland have identified for CNN are no fewer than four art market themes.

The auction industry is in a buyer's market, Christian Herchenröder summarises the auction houses' balance sheets for Handelsblatt: "The fact that the total proceeds in many top auctions remained at the lower end of the price range is a further sign of the market calming down. No less significant are the lower sales at modern and contemporary art auctions in Hong Kong, which fell by 21 per cent this autumn compared to the spring. According to the analyst Arttactic, the corresponding New York auctions have even slumped by 42 per cent. Anglo-Saxon media speak of a 'soft market', a subdued market. Consignors of market-dominating top works are unsettled by the economic climate. High interest rates and the slowing global economy are still playing a major role. But it is a good time for buyers because there are hardly any counterbidders in some areas. 'It's a real collectors' market and not a speculators' market,' says Sotheby's chief executive Charles Stewart."

Her review of the year for the FAZ Anne Reimers begins with the competition from London and Paris: "The trade in luxury goods at Christie's contributed more than ever to total sales, and the Paris location grew in importance. Christie's sold art and luxury objects worth 136.5 million dollars there in October, parallel to the Paris+ par Art Basel fair - an increase of 54 per cent compared to the previous season. Nevertheless, London is still well ahead. In 2023, Christie's sold $826 million worth of art and luxury goods at auctions on the Thames and $335 million on the Seine."

Eva Karcher, whose review in the Tagesspiegel has plenty of positive things to say, does not want to join in the art market blues: "Surprisingly, the boutique fairs with small and medium-sized galleries are increasingly asserting themselves. The smallest of the mini formats include the two-year-old CAN Ibiza, the Nomad Circle, which chooses changing, architecturally spectacular locations in exclusive places such as St. Moritz, Capri or Monaco and mixes art, crafts and design, and the most recent, Art & Design Tegernsee. It started in autumn with ten exhibitors, including the galleries Beck & Eggeling from Düsseldorf and Wentrup from Berlin."

Susanne Schreiber took a closer look at Christie's sales figures for Handelsblatt: "And so [Christie's boss] Cerutti characterises 2023 as a 'paradoxical year'. The challenging macroeconomic environment has led to a decline in sales, lower estimated prices, surcharges at the lower prices and guarantees as security for consignors. In addition to increasing private sales, the luxury sector is a beacon of hope. For the first time, jewellery, handbags, watches and wine have flushed a billion dollars into the coffers - the highest luxury goods result in the history of the Anglo-French auctioneer. In dollar terms, this is an increase of 53 per cent on the pre-corona level."

One likely victim of his auction house's disappointing sales is Stephen Brooks, who is no longer CEO of Phillips, as Stephanie Dieckvoss found out for Handelsblatt on Friday. It is not necessarily surprising that the head of the third-largest art auction house is taking his hat off after a 15 per cent crash (the latter fact reported by Artnews). What is surprising, however, is that none of the relevant organisations Artnews, Artnet or The Art Newspaper have noticed. Apparently, the three are so busy copying from each other or processing press releases that they have no time to monitor other media or even do their own research.

According to Nina Schedlmayer for the Handelsblatt, the Dorotheum seems to have got off lightly last year: "While the Dorotheum announced an auction turnover of 200 million euros for the previous year, this figure will remain below that in 2023. However, as a spokesperson told Handelsblatt, it is still the second-best result since the auction house was founded in 1707."

In Dmitry Rybolovev's never-ending vendetta against Yves Bouvier, Sotheby's is now on trial in New York. Ursula Scheer explains in the FAZ : "But Bouvier is only indirectly involved. The focus is now on correspondence that should reveal who knew what about the roles and knowledge of others in the transactions. One key figure is Samuel Valette, who worked at Sotheby's in the private client business. He was involved in the valuation of both the 'Salvator Mundi' and the 'Head'. In collusion with Bouvier, who led Rybolowlew to believe that he was negotiating with third parties, and possibly in full knowledge of this? Sotheby's had no knowledge of such lies, countered one of the auction house's lawyers in court." During his testimony in this trial, a former FBI expert explained how to recognise a dubious art broker. David Daniel Cassady summarises for Artnews.

Meanwhile, concentration in the middle market continues in the USA:
"Chicago's Hindman auction house will merge with the Philadelphia-based firm Freeman's, the oldest business of its kind in the United States," reports Artnews. "Through the merger, the two are poised to become the largest mid-tier auction house with a focus on American art. Across the two auction houses, there are six salesrooms and 18 offices, all based in the US. Combined, that surpasses the domestic footprint of larger global auction houses, like Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips."

The French investment fund ArtNova, which already owns the BeauxArts Group (with the magazine of the same name and the Quotidien de l'Art), has bought Art Markets Minds, the organiser of the Art Business Conference, according to a report by Jo Lawson-Tancred at Artnet.

With the lurid threat in the headline that a new anti-money laundering law could land artists in prison, the lawyer Hannah Cole at Hyperallergic points out an astonishing fact for EU citizens. According to a new law, companies registered as LLCs - in this case UGs similar to "small GmbHs" - must disclose their beneficial owner to the authorities. Failure to submit a corresponding form could result in a fine or imprisonment of up to two years. What is unusual for local customs is neither the amount of the possible penalty nor the fact that the law also affects artists working as corporations, but the fact that in some US states such companies could previously be entered in the company register without the applicant having to identify themselves.

Due diligence obligations are becoming increasingly important in the art trade, for dealers and collectors alike, if they or their heirs do not want to experience any nasty surprises. I was looking for something like a guide for the Handelsblatt ( - in vain).

Hubertus Butin addresses the not entirely unproblematic practice of some artists of backdating their own works in the FAZ: "In contrast to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Giorgio de Chirico was not interested in creating a higher idealistic value; rather, he aimed at a banal maximisation of profit. What both artists have in common, however, is that they fraudulently falsified the dates and deceived entire generations of art historians, dealers and collectors. Dating is therefore by no means always correct simply because the artists have dated their works themselves."

Marina Abramovic seems to be in urgent need of money. She is now selling longevity products under her name https://abramoviclongevity.com/. Jo Lawson-Tancred describes the offer on Artnet with slight amusement, but does not mention that alcohol is the main ingredient in the "Energy" formula, for example. The set of 4 pipette vials costs a whopping £459.