2023-12-26 17:02:35
What would the art market have been without Pablo Picasso in this Picasso year that is coming to an end? Around the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the man who embodied the artist of classical modernism – including the corresponding egos – like no other, not only were fireworks of exhibitions, publications and conferences set off, but the Spaniard also confidently placed himself at the top of the international auction results . “Femme à la montre,” a portrait of his then lover Marie-Thérèse Walter painted in Picasso’s “miracle year” of 1932, sold for $121 million in New York in the fall; The unnamed buyer paid Sotheby’s 139.4 million with a premium.
Highly important artist, crucial phase of his work, rare watch detail and origin from the prestigious collection of Emily Fisher Landau, who owned this picture before she invested heavily in art with the insurance money after her jewels were stolen in 1969: The now second most expensive Picasso ever auctioned -Work had everything a megaseller needs – and, although it fell below the upper estimate of 180 million dollars, together with the other art treasures sold at auction for a total of 400 million dollars, Fisher Landau outshone a year of disillusionment.
The environment has become more uncertain
Gone are the days of the art trade hype fueled by the pandemic, when the wealthy didn’t know what to do with their money, online trading exploded and exceptional collections like that of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen brought modern art onto the market with museum quality and abundance will soon not be available from a single source again.
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Top ten of the art market: top surcharges in 2023
In an environment that has become even more uncertain economically, politically and ecologically, the much-vaunted market correction is now taking effect in the top segment of the auction industry. In 2023, Christie’s had to accept a drop in sales of more than a quarter from art auctions compared to the previous year, whose boss Guillaume Cerutti spoke of a “year of paradoxes” in the pre-Christmas annual press conference. According to its own information, the company generated sales of $6.2 billion with art and luxury goods; At the end of 2022, there was record sales of 8.4 billion. But the current result is still above that of 2019, and the minus compared to 2022, if you exclude the Paul Allen auctions, is moderate at seven percent.
Christie’s is looking hopefully at the luxury goods division: it increased, with the auction of a ring with a 17.6-carat blue diamond for an incredible $48 million in Geneva making a significant contribution, and attracted new, young customers, particularly from China. Private sales are also up. The number of lots secured with guarantees or irrevocable bids at the big evening auctions demonstrated how effectively the work was done behind the scenes.
Stable numbers at Sotheby’s
Competitor Sotheby’s can appear more broad-shouldered at the end of the year: Across all divisions, sales of around eight billion dollars were achieved, the same as last year, the auction house announces. The demand for top quality remains unbroken, states CEO Charles F. Stewart. This is what Picasso stands for, as does the “Codex Sassoon,” which was sold in New York for $38.1 million gross: No other manuscript has ever fetched a higher price at auction than this thousand-year-old Hebrew Bible.
But it’s getting tighter at the top. While the net prices of the top ten totaled almost a billion dollars in 2022, they came to around 565 million in 2023. Female artists are slowly catching up in appreciation: their works were not included in the fifty most expensive list last year; now there are Louise Bourgeois, Georgia O’Keeffe and Joan Mitchell. However, thanks to expansion, things are making progress in France: There, the auction house Artcurial, which has just been absorbed by Beurret Bailly Widmer, reported the best result in its company history with sales of 217 million euros. Top prize of the year: a Ferrari.
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