Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 33 2024

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." For Kabir Jhala from The Art Newspaper, the entry of an investor had been announced: "The news of ADQ's investment is unlikely to come as a surprise to industry professionals. Reports of Drahi floating a private sale or a public offering of Sotheby's shares have been circulating since 2021. Last year the Financial Times reported that another Gulf sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, was among the candidates engaged in informal talks to acquire a minority stake in the auction house. The pressure that high interest rates have placed on Drahi's heavily leveraged business empire, which was built on sizeable loans and convoluted financing mechanisms in the era of cheap money, is well documented." Drahi paid USD 3.7 billion for the company in 2019. The explicit reference to the fact that Drahi remains the majority owner with a relatively low total investment amount of one billion, which is also likely to be raised by both parties, could conversely indicate that the company valuation is now significantly lower than in 2019. ADQ, whose name is only apparently an acronym, is fully named Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company PJSC and is owned by the state. According to Wikipedia, the invested assets amount to 159 billion dollars. This makes ADQ one of the ten largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. Is it actually an arrogant Western approach to point out that ADQ's large management team is exclusively male? Stephanie Dieckvoss surmises in the Handelsblatt: "Part of the growth plans is certainly the Arab region, where a 'more robust presence' is being sought. Overall, Sotheby's has been undergoing restructuring for some time, focussing more and more on luxury and lifestyle than on growth drivers. And the pressure to continue to grow sales at a time when the art market as a whole is stagnating will be strong. That will generate more news."

Frank Kurzhals explores what AI can and cannot (yet) do in auction houses for the Handelsblatt: "At the Berlin auction house Bassenge, for example, David Bassenge is convinced that AI can only be used 'to support translations and text corrections'. 'AI is not yet suitable for generating well-founded catalogue texts,' says Bassenge. This puts him in line with the other major auction houses. But not everyone sees it that way. Younger employees at Bassenge like to experiment with AI. Only to then filter out the errors generated by the AI through more extensive editing under the watchful eye of the department head. Christie's has set up a think tank in order to gain more confidence in the possible applications of new technologies and to better bundle the scattered knowledge. As the 'Art+Tech Summit', it presents its findings at an annual two-day conference."

Christian Herchenröder presents a handbook on the art market by Christie's employee Dirk Boll in the Handelsblatt: "The author, who can benefit from lively insider knowledge, devotes the most space to the aspect of 'art as a commodity'. All classic collecting areas and new trends such as the secondary market for digital NFTs, which has been stimulated by auctions, are examined here. Luxury objects and wines, comics and vintage cars, even properties designed by important architects are covered here in terms of their market relevance. The problems of looted art are dealt with in detail. The numerous interspersed illustrations of auction objects are enlightening, and not just with prices in the millions."

Art dealers were already turning a big wheel in the 19th century, as a book about Julius Böhler that Sabine Spindler read for the Handelsblatt shows: "But he was also a strategic entrepreneur and international networker. His business records, which are kept in the Bavarian Economic Archives, have now been analysed by the director there, Richard Winkler, in the publication 'Vom Hausierer zum Multimillionär'. It is deliberately not a biography, but a report on the flourishing business of one of the most important German art dealers around 1900. His transactions, their purchase and sale prices, make it clear that even then, people were operating at the top end of the market with breathtaking prices and returns."

Is it a text about collecting, preserving, holding on to, about an artist, an exhibition, a book? However, Oliver Koerner von Gustorf's article on Edmund de Waal for Monopol points far beyond its subject matter and perhaps allows us to look at the things we surround ourselves with with different eyes.

Kristina Thomas visited an exhibition that gives refugee women from Ukraine a face and a story for the Tagesspiegel (paywall): "In Ukraine, they were doctors, camerawomen, supply chain managers, psychotherapists, artists, stylists and scientists. Then the Russian invasion of their country in February 2022 forced them to flee. Once they arrived in Berlin, they were suddenly just that: refugees. [...] Instead of contributing their wealth of experience and knowledge, the refugees were pressurised into accepting work that was below their qualifications as a result of the debate about the citizens' income and the 'job turbo'. 'Instead of looking at whether these people can work as cleaners,' says Oleksandra Bienert, 'it would be much more helpful to consider how we as a society can manage to integrate these people according to their qualifications."

Just how deep the summer slump must be is demonstrated by a story about an alleged child prodigy aged two that is currently being passed around again. Because nobody from the "art world is celebrating Mini-Picasso" as the "talent of the century", this is mainly taking place in the tabloid media and in the imagination of Sarah Diedenhoven from Ippen Media, who is allowed to spread the word in the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Merkur, among others. According to the Standard, the paintings cost up to 270,000 dollars and there are 10,000 names on the waiting list. This is all according to a Reuters report that one would like to read. Because stories that have been circulating about the painting toddler for some time now indicate that, according to his mother, someone has offered this sum for his first work. Otherwise, the works cost up to 15,000 euros. The story already picked up speed in the spring after the New York Post and BILD somehow became aware that a "gallery" was showing the colourful paintings at Art Muc. At that time, the prices were still a maximum of 7,000 dollars/6,500 euros. In fact, the Instagram account now has 50,000 followers. Ursula Scheer even takes the circus somewhat seriously and writes in the FAZ: "If Laurent Schwarz encourages parents to let their children paint and splash around in colours with their bare hands, that would be his greatest success. But nobody should try to turn it into a business model."

The announcement of a series about the fraudster Inigo Philbrick prompts Riah Pryor in The Art Newspaper to ponder how to prevent art criminals from capitalising on their crimes: "So, in a world where an ex-president can run for re-election in the US after a criminal conviction and art frauds can lead to a hit Netflix series, where are the boundaries between crime and compensation-and who monitors them?"

In the Handelsblatt, I report on the status of the insolvency proceedings at Galerie Thomas in Munich and options for creditors.

Rose-Maria Gropp pays tribute to Frankfurt gallerist Bärbel Grässlin on her 70th birthday in the FAZ of 10 August: "Since then, she has been doing what has become rare, namely 'building up' artists and then accompanying them intensively on their paths. She does this with a sure instinct, perseverance and with a dealer's skill. It has long been impossible to imagine the important art fairs in Cologne and Madrid, Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong and Paris without her gallery. Whenever you meet her, it is her open-minded strength of opinion on the global art market that characterises her. But for all her realism, her commitment to her artists remains unwavering."

Timo Feldhaus remembers Kasper König, who died on Friday, in the Berliner Zeitung: "König developed nationally, but also internationally, into an emblem and synonym for the exhibition organiser. He practically invented the profession of curator, doing so less as a smart string-puller than as an enthusiastic doer. A great intellectual, but also a living example of how art does not have to be difficult, but can be fun. And still be high-calibre. An enthusiast and an art enthusiast."