Art Market Insights | December 19, 2019
Greetings from Butera Art Advisory and Management, LLC (BAAM). We wish you a very Happy Holiday season and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Before the end of the year, BAAM wants to answer two questions for you:
- Is a banana duct-taped to a wall worth $120,000?
- What is an Auction Estimate?
Our December Art Market Insights below will answer these questions.
We are looking forward to working with you and your clients in 2020!
Best wishes,
Alanna Butera
Head of Appraisals and Advisory, President and Manager
Alanna@ButeraArtAdvisory.com | 908-591-5023
ART MARKET INSIGHTS | December 2019
A $120,000 Banana at Art Basel Miami Beach: Debrief
The most talked-about artwork of 2019 is prankster-artist Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian – a banana duct-taped to a wall. Since its debut at the art fair, it has provoked outrage, debate, and discussion around the world.
In case you missed it:
- Why is this art? In words uttered by Andy Warhol “Art is what you can get away with.”
- Who bought it? Three bananas have already been sold, including one to Sarah Andelman (founder of Colette, Paris) and one to Miami art collectors Billy and Beatrice Cox who called the work the Warhol “Soup Cans” of this generation.
- A real banana? Yes! It was even eaten by a performance artist David Datuna and was subsequently removed from the fair for causing unsafe crowds.
Art Basel Miami Beach is a premier art fair occurring each year in early December. This year’s fair featured 269 galleries from 33 countries. Happening concurrently with the fair was Miami Art Week which includes other art fairs, museum exhibitions, and public art installations, among other events.
- Despite pre-fair week jitters, dealers saw steady sales, including great activity from buyers in their late 30/40s in part signaling a generational buying shift.
- Learn more about what the VIPs were buying in the opening hours and click through for an overarching breakdown of what sold and for how much (note: be wary – prices quoted in articles may be inflated).
- Elephant in the room: the art world and climate change. With the rising sea-level in coastal Miami, the conversation shifted to the fair’s environmental impact. Due to extensive travel, shipping, and art packing waste, international art fairs are not particularly Earth-friendly. Artists and panelists attempted to address the issue, while the fair’s organizers look to develop long-term initiatives to improve its ecological footprint.
Auction Estimates: The Inside Scoop
BAAM thought it was crucial to answer the question: what is an auction estimate and what does it mean? When we assist clients with the sale of art, jewelry, motorcars and other items at auction, this question inevitably gets asked by the client or an advisor.
- In essence, “auction estimates are primarily marketing tools tethered, to some extent, to prior market history, but ideally designed to entice maximal bidding.”
- In the absence of other benchmarks, estimates often serve as a market barometer. Whether sale prices fail to meet, meet or exceed estimates, they can indicate a falling or rising market.
- While initially based on past market performance, estimates are established through a negotiation with the consignor/seller and their advisors and the auction houses and their specialists.
- Paradoxical interests in auction estimates:
- Consignors may want high estimates because they want a strong sale price; however, too high of an estimate may actually kill demand and/or result in an unsold lot.
- Specialists frequently want the consignor to accept the lowest possible estimate to promote bidding, foster competition, and exceed expectations.
- With intense competition between auction houses to win consignments, estimates on key lots may be inflated to appeal to the consignor’s wishes. Be cautious of pre-sale estimates as they may reflect the auction house’s negotiating skills rather than market appetite.
Want to learn more? Read the full article here.
New York Auction Sale Recap: Aboriginal Art + Design Sales
- Sotheby’s held a particularly successful inaugural sale of Contemporary Aboriginal Art in New York totaling $2.8M with an 88% sell-through rate.
- Phillips Design Sale realized $3.5M with pieces by Jean Royère claiming the three most expensive lots.
- Christie’s Design sale realized $6.7M with its top lot creating an auction record for an Adolf Loos Rare Longcase Clock c. 1900 which sold for $447,000, over two times the presale estimate.