Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 45 2025

Georg Imdahl from the FAZ clearly enjoyed Artissima in Turin: "With around 170 exhibitors, Artissima presents a serious, reliable selection of paintings, sculptures and installations. Fassi would like to reduce this number somewhat in the future. As can be heard in conversations with them, some exhibitors appreciate the fair as a welcome opportunity to ‘try something out’ – meaning that participation does not cost as much as it does with the industry leaders. Artissima also scores points with its drastically reduced VAT on works of art. Previously the most expensive country in Europe at 22 per cent, Italy has been attracting visitors since this summer with a rate of five per cent, the lowest in Europe.

George Nelson and Tom Seymour make the reduction in VAT on art in Italy the focus of their Turin fair report for Artnews. They cite sales forecasts that apparently served as a basis for the government's action: "The government finally bowed after two decades of lobbying from galleries, antique dealers, and auction houses. A study published earlier this year by consulting and market intelligence company Nomisma estimated that cutting the VAT could see an additional generation of €1.5 billion (around $1.7 billion) over three years. It also predicted that the Italian economy could swell by up to €4.2 billion ($4.8 billion) as a result."

For Ocula, Tom Seymour explains the special features of the Turin model: ’The fair opens at a moment when mid-size European galleries are seeking lower-cost alternatives to the overhead pressures of London, Paris and Basel. The fair's proximity to institutions including Castello di Rivoli, Fondazione Merz, OGR Torino and Museo d'Arte Orientale — alongside a collector base led by the Agnelli and Re Rebaudengo families — makes Turin a compelling case study in how regional ecosystems can develop global relevance in the art market."

I was in Turin for the Handelsblatt and Artmagazine.

Regine Müller sees Art Cologne as well positioned in the international competition in her preliminary report for the Handelsblatt: "Competition stimulates business, and for the wealthy international clientele, the concentration of dates makes fair hopping particularly attractive. In addition, the market is actually recovering noticeably. This was the unanimous opinion heard and read about “Art Basel Paris”, and Daniel Hug also senses a clear spirit of optimism in the run-up to the Cologne fair: “Registrations from VIPs, museum staff, directors, curators and museum visitors are much better this year. The numbers have virtually tripled. So there is much more interest than last year. I don't know exactly why that is.”"

Sarah Douglas and Daniel Cassady have compiled a list of galleries that are no longer participating in Art Basel Miami Beach for Artnews. How fortunate that not all English-language art publications are media partners of Art Basel!

Collectors are currently risk-averse, observes Melanie Gerlis in the Financial Times (paywall; or here): “The verdict from October’s energetic fortnight of fairs and auctions in London and Paris is that the art market is finally coming alive again. Taste is still not wildly experimental, rather there is a ‘safety first’ mindset, as collectors seek institutional support and works with more than a nod to art history. But sales were made, across all categories, providing relief to a beleaguered sector.”

The art market in Taiwan is currently going through difficult times, reports Hok-Hang Cheung in Artnews: "However, despite all the buzz, Taiwan's art market has been on a roller coaster this year—and the numbers tell a harsh story. According to a report from the Ministry of Culture, the import of artworks (including antiquities) fell by 15.2 per cent in 2024 compared to the previous year. The auction market has taken a hit. Sales at the spring auction of modern and contemporary art held by Ravenel, Taiwan's leading auction house, dropped from roughly $14.6 million in 2020 to $3.6 million in 2025."

Bettina Wohlfarth describes spring fever in the Paris art market in her follow-up report on the auctions there for the FAZ: "Sotheby's, Christie's, Artcurial and the auctioneers at Drouot generated a good €220 million during the autumn art week – about a third more than in the previous year. Christophe Lucien opened the most exciting auction when he called out a portrait of Dora Maar, painted by Pablo Picasso in 1943, in the packed hall at Drouot. “Buste de femme au chapeau à fleurs” had remained in the same private collection for 80 years and had previously only been known through two black-and-white photographs. The hammer fell after 35 minutes at €27 million – far exceeding expectations by €8 million. The final bidders for the work were all in the room, with the hammer falling in favour of the well-known dealer and collector David Nahmad.“

Maurizio Cattelan's golden toilet is likely to cause a sensation once again when it goes under the hammer at Sotheby's in two weeks' time. George Nelson quotes the company in Artnews with a sentence that probably takes a lot of practice to say without laughing or blushing: "When the 100-kilogram toilet hits the block at the house's “The Now and Contemporary” evening sale on 18 November, the starting bid will be determined by the price of the work's weight in gold. That is expected to be around $10 million. ‘Cattelan's incisive commentary on the collision of artistic production and commodity value has never felt more timely,’ Sotheby's said in a statement.

Nina Schedlmayer points out the success of female artists at the Old Art auctions at the Dorotheum in Vienna in the Handelsblatt: "Once again, the heroines of the evening were the Austrian mood impressionists, whose lots all found buyers – Olga Wisinger-Florian's magnificent meadow piece from a year-long cycle, which she herself considered a personal masterpiece, sold for £91,000, two other paintings by her for £23,400 and £26,000. Paintings by Marie Egner fetched €28,600 and €26,000, and a small-format work by Tina Blau sold for €4,680.‘

Melanie Gerlis reflects in The Art Newspaper (maybe paywall) on an email she received from a PR agency: ’Tom Sachs: Now Represented by The Lede Company". The body of the email clarifies that this is an “agency representation” and its small print notes that Thaddaeus Ropac “will continue to represent Tom Sachs for all gallery and fine art inquiries”, a relationship that has been in place since 1998. The Lede Company may have overblown a fairly standard—and, thanks to Sachs ending his contract and moving to a different agency, short-lived—PR role, but the brief additional representation still begs the question: where does a gallery end and an agency begin?"

Nir Altman announced the closure of his Munich gallery after ten years on Instagram just three days before it happened last Thursday.