Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 4 2024

As the first international art fair of the year, Art SG in Singapore is testing the market with its second edition. Naima Morelli reports in The Art Newspaper of - surprise! - "swift sales": "While the gallery participation dropped by 29% this year, this is not felt when walking around the stands. Works of art now have more breathing space, with galleries still spread over the two dedicated floors of Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre. 'On the top floor the cheap and cheerful. On the basement, the established and expensive,' summarised one visitor. 'I feel this year is smaller but cosier,' says the Singapore collector Huai Seng Chong. 'And I see quite a lot of people from overseas. Geopolitics is indeed responsible for sales too. Walking around the aisles in extravagant outfits are several Hong Kong collectors who recently moved to Singapore, Russian expats more than willing to invest in art, and a growing number of wealthy Indian nationals living in Singapore, setting up family offices and showcasing their collections in open houses during art week."

Christian Herchenröder takes a close look at Asia's large and diverse art market in the Handelsblatt: "High growth rates are over for the time being. That China will overtake the US economy is an outdated forecast. The land of the rising sun has slipped into deflation and is struggling with an unresolved crisis on the property market, high unemployment, shrinking foreign investment and geopolitical tensions over Taiwan. This is also having an impact on the country's art climate and the sales of the two most important domestic auction houses." However, he also points out: "China is not everything. The Japanese art market, which fell into a deep slumber after the 1990 crash, is also beginning to revive. The Art Week in Tokyo, which was founded in 2021 based on the Berlin model and focusses on Japanese art, and two new fairs are ensuring this: since 2015, the 'Art Fair Tokyo' with around 150 exhibitors and the 'Tokyo Gendai'. It had its successful debut last year. The gallery scene is beginning to internationalise."

In her review of the Spanish auction year, Clementine Kügler reports for the FAZ reports of numerous museum acquisitions: "The Madrid Museum of Romanticism has gained a 'Pietà' by Francisco de Goya. At the end of 2022, Abalarte was forced to take back the unusually classicist work for three million euros. The state acquired it in mid-December 2023 for 1.5 million euros, making it accessible to the public." Comparably high-calibre acquisitions are unfortunately extremely rare in this country. She also mentions the acquisition of the archive of gallery owner Juana de Aizpuru, who closed her gallery last year without a successor. Meanwhile, her colleague Helga de Alvear was recognised by the state, as Clementine Kügler also reports in the FAZ reports: "At the vernissage on 25 January, Portugal honoured the 87-year-old art mediator with the Medal for Cultural Merit of the Republic. She has long since been honoured by the Spanish government, the city of Madrid and the autonomous community of Extremadura. But she is extremely pleased that the Portuguese are also recognising her work and that two culture ministers will be at her side on Thursday: the Spanish and the Portuguese."

Michael Lassmann offers a price report of Otto "Gypsy Müller" in WELTKUNST: "Müller's drawings are traded far more rarely than those by Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff, Heckel or Pechstein. Only just under 340 have been sold in the last 35 years. The bidding was dominated by works from his particularly prolific period in Breslau from 1919 onwards, which accordingly also determined the top group with values in the six-figure range. The two highest hammer prices were achieved by the New York team from Sotheby's, but excellent results were also possible in Germany."

Two paintings by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall stolen in Israel in 2010 have been seized by the police in Antwerp, reports Ursula Scheer in the FAZ: "According to the agency, the paintings came back into the sights of the investigating authorities at the end of 2022 when they were informed that a Belgian citizen residing in Namur was trying to sell both paintings." It would be interesting to find out whether the jewellery that was also stolen at the time and is still missing has any connection to the location where the paintings were found.

The Rybolovlev-Sotheby's trial is being followed live by the New York art industry media in a similar way as the Trump or Epstein trials, for example by Daniel Cassady for Artnews or Marion Maneker from Artmarketmonitor in a video on Instagram
(account required) or in text form at Substack. In the Standard Olga Kronsteiner tries to explain what the trial is all about. Not an easy endeavour, as the insinuation of an offended ego could potentially mean costly trouble with the oligarch who is keen to sue. In the NZZ, Philipp Meier focuses on the in this context central painting "Salvator Mundi" and comes to the following conclusion: "Ultimately, the cultural authorities of Abu Dhabi are likely to be the real victims in this case involving what is probably a relatively insignificant workshop painting, which various protagonists from the art world have probably quickly turned into a 'genuine' work by Leonardo da Vinci."

Niklaus Nuspliger sheds light on London and its function as a safe haven for oligarchs in the NZZ: "Property is the vehicle of choice in the UK for foreigners who want to invest assets of dubious origin. Flats and villas can easily be filled with art, expensive furniture or other valuables. In 2015, investigative journalists from the TV channel Channel 4 showed in the documentary 'From Russia with Cash' how London property agents turn a blind eye even to the obviously criminal origin of client funds. Previously, the oligarchs were able to hide behind offshore companies, for example in the British Virgin Islands, which acquired the properties in their name. Such companies must now be registered in the UK, which creates transparency with regard to the ultimate beneficiaries. Identity checks will also be tightened when setting up a British company; previously, a few clicks on a website were enough." What once again becomes clear en passant from reading the report: It is not art that was and is the favoured vehicle for money laundering, but real estate. This is unlikely to have changed much.

Vittorio Sgarbi, a colourful figure on the Italian cultural scene who has served various right-wing governments in different capacities and currently holds the office of Secretary of State, has been in trouble with the authorities in several cases, explains Anca Ulea on Euronews. A painting that he claims to have received from his mother was actually stolen from a villa in northern Italy ten years ago. Elisabetta Povoledo explains this case in the New York Times.

The painter Leon Löwentraut has won the case for the premature termination of his ten-year contract with his former Düsseldorf gallery, reports Monopol in a dpa news. In times of dwindling media competence, this practice of mixing agency reports that are barely recognisable as such into one's own content is a double-edged sword. The curator and critic Raimund Stecker even speaks of an "alliance" between the magazine and Löwentraut on Facebook. Some of the comments under the post even completely ignore the actual content of the message. As a rule, social media is not a haven for rational discourse. However, the current practice of many media outlets of mixing self-researched, agency-cobbled together or even sponsored content into a product in a way that is difficult to understand is probably not conducive to stimulating discourse.

Daniel Cassady reports the closure of the New York gallery Alexander and Bonin at the end of last year on Artnews. Co-founder and owner Ted Bonin passed away last spring.

Angelica Villa also reports the closure of Washburn Gallery's physical presence after more than five decades on Artnews.

The murder of New York gallery owner Brent Sikkema (Sikkema Jenkins & Co.) in his flat in Rio de Janeiro is reported by Adam Schrader and Katya Kazakina on Artnet. Schrader also reports the arrest of a Cuban man suspected of the crime on Artnet, where he also mentions a custody dispute, although it remains unclear whether this could be connected in any way to the murder.