Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 31 2025

According to its website, the Taipei Dangdai art fair is taking a break after this year's edition, which took place in early May. Karen K. Ho writes in Artnews: "The event [...] is among three regional art fairs in Asia overseen by the international fair conglomerate The Art Assembly. The other two are Art SG in Singapore and Tokyo Gendai in Yokohama, Japan. Exhibition consultancy firm Angus Montgomery Arts is also a principal and founding shareholder of all three art fairs. The first edition of the fair took place in January 2019 and was led by Magnus Renfrew, the former director of Art Basel Hong Kong. The fair featured more than 90 participating galleries, including mega-galleries Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, and David Zwirner. Blue-chip galleries which also participated in the inaugural edition included Sadie Coles HQ, Perrotin, White Cube, Lehmann Maupin, and Lisson Gallery. The number of participating galleries shrank to 54 by this year's edition, with none of the mega-galleries participating.

Eileen Kinsella analyses the list of participants at Art Basel Miami Beach for Artnet (paywall possible): “Galleries that appeared last year in the main sector but are not taking part this year include Galerie Buchholz, Company, Pilar Corrias, Dan Galeria, DC Moore, Greene Naftali, Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Galerie Nagel Draxler, David Nolan, and Waddington Custot. Other shops not taking part, unsurprisingly, are Los Angeles mainstay Blum, which announced its closure, Rhona Hoffman (ditto), and Peres Projects, which was declared insolvent in Germany in April.” This development is not surprising in itself, but its scale is remarkable.

Regine Müller explains the advantage of formats such as the Bamberg Art and Antiques Weeks in the Handelsblatt: "Instead of strolling through cool exhibition halls, interested visitors can stroll through Bamberg's picturesque old town at the foot of the Domberg. The dealers sit side by side in magnificent historic buildings that are museum pieces in their own right. And the objects naturally appear overwhelmingly authentic in such surroundings. In other words, Bamberg is highly efficient; anyone interested in old art will find the highest quality here within a short distance. Apart from the fact that the cobblestones are a real challenge for wheeled suitcases.‘ In her report for the FAZ on 26 July, Brita Sachs from Bamberg reports a personnel change: ’Fiona Freifrau Loeffelholz von Colberg has organised the Art and Antiques Weeks for fifteen years. Now she wants to devote herself to new tasks – and it is up to the dealers to consider how to continue with the popular format."

Upstate Art Weekend, founded by former Pulse director Helen Toomer, is developing into a hotspot for the New York art world, enthuses Harrison Jacobs in Artnews: "The inaugural edition of UAW, which featured 23 participants, came at the right time. While artists and the art-adjacent have slowly filtered up to Hudson and the surrounding region since the mid-2010s, the exodus from New York City surged in 2020, as the wealthy (and the merely upper middle class priced out of the Hamptons) fled the city for green space. Now, UAW's participants have grown to a whopping 158 stretching across 6,000 square miles, south to north from Tarrytown to Stamford, west to east, from Narrowsburg to East Chatham."

There have been galleries on London's Cork Street for 100 years. The real estate company that owns the street is sponsoring the celebrations, and Stephanie Dieckvoss tells the story of the location in the Handelsblatt: "Fifteen galleries open their doors in the evening, present their current exhibitions and participate in a curated group exhibition, some more visibly than others. Times are tough for galleries. The recent closure of the Blum Gallery in Los Angeles is still fresh in many people's minds. Crises are causing some to question the gallery model, and London's role in the European and global context remains controversial. While some international visitors prefer Paris, others continue to emphasise the importance of this art metropolis. This makes it all the more important to remember that ups and downs are part of the art market and that London's gallery district in Mayfair has a long and proud history.

Hauser & Wirth is collaborating with the Société gallery in Berlin on a joint group exhibition, according to a press release. Kate Brown sees this as a good sign for the location: "It is also a signal to the growing resurgence of Berlin's market relevance in Europe. Though a strong site of cultural production and a home base for many artists, the city has not successfully sustained an art fair. Pace opened an office in Berlin in 2023 and a gallery last year. The recently announced reduction in sales tax rates from 19 percent to 7 percent has also helped breathe more life into Germany's art market more widely.‘

Georg Imdahl reports in the FAZ that Ruttkowski;68 is taking over the former Galerie m in Bochum as its fifth location: ’Expanding to Paris and New York with a Cologne gallery seems plausible in the global art market. However, opening a branch in Düsseldorf – in the premises of the former Hans Mayer gallery – seems somewhat unusual in the Rhineland. Now Nils Müller has chosen a new, fifth location for his gallery Ruttkowski;68: Bochum. The Ruhr region rightly prides itself on its dense museum landscape. However, there has never been any art trade of note between Duisburg and Dortmund. So why Bochum? You have to be a local patriot to open a gallery in the middle of the Ruhr Valley. Like Alexander von Berswordt-Wallrabe, former founder and long-time operator of Galerie M Bochum, which has been one of the rare exceptions in the region for decades and is now, somewhat unexpectedly, moving to Duisburg under the direction of Susanne Breidenbach.

The London gallery Waddington Custot is opening a branch in Paris, reports Maxwell Rabb at Artsy. It is taking over the premises of the Pascal Lansberg gallery, whose closure at the end of June was announced by Jade Pillaudin in Quotidien de l'Art.

This year, the art market segment at the interface with the luxury industry will once again have to brace itself for rough waters, according to figures from Bernard Arnault's LVMH group reported by Manager Magazin: "Sales fell by 4 per cent to 39.8 billion euros, the company announced on Thursday after the close of trading in Paris. [...] Despite the decline in profits, analyst Zuzanna Pusz of Swiss bank UBS emphasised what she sees as impressive cost control. However, she added that business development in the second half of the year remains difficult to predict and that the risks associated with the estimates for 2026 remain.

The watch market, on the other hand, offers a ray of hope: Prices are rising again, according to research by Markus Hinterberger for the Handelsblatt (paywall): "As public life returned to normal in mid-2022, prices gradually fell back to pre-pandemic levels. Only now are retailers such as Joram Scher reporting new momentum. Prices are gradually beginning to rise, while still remaining affordable. Scher believes that this is also linked to the uncertainty on the financial markets. According to [Chrono24 co-founder Tim] Stracke, demand is no longer concentrated on just a few models. Interest has broadened overall. On the other hand, the expert also observes that some watches that were snapped up by retailers during the pandemic are suddenly hardly in demand anymore." The author provides a price overview of the most famous models.

According to research by Bettina Wohlfarth for the FAZ on 26 July, French auction houses have had a modest half-year: "Christie's was able to offer more goods and a balanced range in the first half of the year, but there was a lack of top-quality pieces. With sales of €156 million so far for 2025, the Pinault family's auction house is still well ahead, but has suffered a 26 per cent decline. [...] With sales of €104 million, France's largest auction house, Artcurial, is just behind Sotheby's and has recorded a 14 per cent decline."

The Phillips auction house is introducing a new fee structure and appears to be taking a more skilful approach than its competitor Sotheby's, reports Tessa Solomon in Artnews: "Here's how it will work: A binding written bid must be placed at least 48 hours before the auction's start time and must be equal to or greater than the lot's published low estimate. According to Phillips, the winning priority bid will benefit from a ‘significantly lower’ buyer's premium rate. [...] Art advisor Dane Jensen told ARTnews on Tuesday that the new fees should have a limited impact. ‘This really is only applicable to more moderately priced lots, as usually the top lots have guarantees,’ Jensen said. The biggest advantage, he added, seems to go to the auction house, not collectors, as the structure gives specialists 48 hours to shop the bid around and solicit a higher bid.

Appraisal specialist Winston Art Group and Artory are merging with the participation of several private equity firms to form the Winston Artory Group (WAG), reports Daniel Cassady at Artnews: ‘WAG's value proposition lies in its access to information few others can see. Unlike auction results, which are public—if often massaged—private sales remain largely hidden. To compensate, WAG compiles price lists ahead of major fairs, tracks what sells, and aggregates nearly a million dealer data points. ’We advise 30 percent of the biggest art collectors in this country," said Co-Executive Chairman Nanne Dekking. ‘So every dealer sends information to us because they want us to share that with our clients.’ In other words, Winston Artory isn't just appraising artworks—it's appraising the state of the art market itself. And at the moment, the outlook is mixed." The interview with the two CEOs on which the report is based was conducted by James Tarny for Business of Fashion (free after registration).

A bipartisan legislative initiative calls for the introduction of money laundering rules for the US art market, reports Karen K. Ho in Artnews: “[...] the bill “specifically targets high-risk art market transactions while exempting artists themselves and businesses with under $50,000 in annual art transactions. It would align the United States with international standards already adopted by the United Kingdom, European Union, and Switzerland, preventing America from becoming a safe haven for illicit activities.” The bill also specifies that art sellers who do not have single transactions over $10,000 and do not total transactions of $50,000 involving a work of art are exempt. It also fully exempts artists who sell their own works, as well as non-profit organisations.” A detailed press release from Senator Bill Fretterman gives numerous supporters of the initiative a chance to have their say.

The artists' social security fund has some almost good news, reports dpa: "For the first time in seven years, the artists' social security contribution for more than 190,000 self-employed artists and cultural workers is set to fall next year. In 2026, the tax will be 4.9 per cent [instead of 5.0%], according to the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs. “This is possible because the economic situation in the arts and culture sector has developed better than predicted last year,” said Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD)."

Who would have thought it: Herzog & de Meuron's discount store hall at the Kulturforum in Berlin will not only be completed a year later than planned, but will also be more expensive than anticipated, reports dpa: ‘According to the latest overall cost forecast, the estimated construction costs, including projected risk costs and construction price increases, amount to around 526.5 million euros,’ according to the report from the Ministry of Culture. Previously, the estimate had been around 450 million euros. “Due to its complexity, the project continues to involve a high level of risk,” the document states.‘

Andreas Kilb warns in the FAZ against the threatened cuts in Berlin's culture budget: ’The culture budget, on the other hand, amounts to just under a billion: not a drop in the ocean, but the smallest slice of the budget pie. And yet culture is currently the only thing the capital really has to offer. Poverty is no longer sexy, and even the flair of the global village on the Spree with its provincial airport is no longer appealing. There is only one area in which Berlin is still internationally competitive. For now. The Senate should think carefully about how deep it is cutting into its own flesh when it puts the knife to the arts." Deutschlandfunk Kultur (audio) takes a more detailed look at the cuts in a quarter-hour report. Berlin's Senator for Culture, Sarah Wedl-Wilson, has the same amount of time on Radio 3 (audio) to explain her plans.

A little gossip is inevitable. As expected, Hilde Lynn Helphenstein's (aka Jerry Gogosian) recently announced departure is unlikely to be final: ‘When The Art Newspaper bumped into her at the Art Basel Shop in June, Helphenstein told us that she wanted ’to write a White Lotus or Succession of the art world". And she has another objective too, adding: “Besides my creative endeavours, I want to work for MCH Group and eventually for Art Basel.”"