Art.view: Climbing back
Heartening contemporary art sales in LondonWHAT a difference a year makes. The contemporary art sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York last November were furnished with works which had been consigned over the summer, when the market was still a jolly place. Reserves were optimistic and many consignors had been offered guarantees to entice them to sell. After the Dow crashed 500 points on September 15th 2008—the same day that saw the collapse of Lehman, a Wall Street firm that had survived 19th-century railway bankruptcies and the Great Depression, buyers of contemporary art suddenly froze. November in New York was grim. Picture after picture failed to reach its reserve and the sales saw the largest number of lots bought in for nearly two decades. The two auction houses paid out more than $80m in guarantees.Prices of contemporary art at auction have dropped 50% or more in the year since. The withdrawal of guarantees (except in exceptional cases) has caused many consignors to hang on their work, which explains why, according to calculations made by ArtTactic, a London-based research firm, the volume of sales at contemporary-art auctions over the period has dropped by as much as 80%. ...
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