{"id":2500,"date":"2016-11-15T11:26:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T11:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/createsly\/?p=2500"},"modified":"2016-11-15T11:26:23","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T11:26:23","slug":"the-art-markets-reaction-to-trump-sales-this-week-offer-first-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/2016\/11\/15\/the-art-markets-reaction-to-trump-sales-this-week-offer-first-test\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art Market’s Reaction to Trump? Sales This Week Offer First Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Rockefeller Center on Sunday, milling outside Christie\u2019s sales rooms \u2014 where private clients sipped mimosas as they took in one of Monet\u2019s grainstacks \u2014 people in the art world sounded guardedly optimistic about how the auctions will perform this week, after a period of uncertainty exacerbated by the contentious American presidential election, Britain\u2019s \u201cBrexit\u201d vote in June and China\u2019s slowing economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a lot of insecurity and it\u2019s hard to say exactly what will happen,\u201d said Jay Gorney, a collector, curator and former dealer, predicting that \u201cgood things will do extremely well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sales of Impressionist, Modern and contemporary art that start Monday offer the first test of how the art market will react to a Trump presidency and whether it will continue a softening trend that, for the past year, has had potential sellers reluctant to consign their best works.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve got something great, you don\u2019t sell it because you\u2019re uncertain what you\u2019re going to get for it,\u201d said J. Tomilson Hill, the vice chairman at the Blackstone Group and art collector, about the prevailing mood. \u201cSellers are largely sitting on their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is that each of the three major auction houses \u2014 Christie\u2019s, Sotheby\u2019s and Phillips \u2014 are entering this week\u2019s sales with fewer trophies of more than $20 million than they have had in the recent past. Over all, the estimated sales in postwar and contemporary art are half what they were last year. The evening auctions of postwar and contemporary art at the three houses, for example, are expected to draw about $536 million, compared with $1.2 billion for the same auctions in November 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gathered the best material they could with a lot of sellers cautious and not willing to commit,\u201d said Neal Meltzer, an art adviser. \u201cSupply is the issue more than demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A view of Claude Monet\u2019s \u201cMeule,\u201d at Christie\u2019s.<\/span> Credit<\/span>Brian Harkin for The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the days before the sales, collectors, art advisers and auction specialists were pointing to encouraging signs, citing the postelection stock market highs, the post-\u201cBrexit\u201d London sales in June and Sotheby\u2019s London auction of David Bowie\u2019s art collection last week, which had a sell-through rate of 100 percent and set new top prices for 59 artists.<\/p>\n

Moreover, many collectors are sanguine about the effects of Mr. Trump\u2019s victory, both in the United States and around the world. \u201cI feel great,\u201d said the real estate developer Arnie Rosenshein. \u201cI was for Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet history suggests that single events rarely affect sales, art experts say. \u201cThe market has been pretty impervious to just about every event with the exception of the global meltdown of 2008,\u201d said Robert Manley, who recently became Phillips\u2019s new co-head of 20th century & contemporary art after 16 years at Christie\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Donald B. Marron, a financier and longtime collector, said he expected the auctions to be largely business as usual. \u201cClearly this is a surprise and in one sense makes everybody cautious until they see how everything works,\u201d Mr. Marron said. \u201cOn the other hand, if you want to judge by the markets, less regulation is seen as positive. My guess is, it will be like most auction seasons: good pictures will do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the challenging timing of the sales, the auction houses have managed to squeak out a few prizes. Sotheby\u2019s secured Edvard Munch\u2019s 1902 painting, \u201cThe Girls on the Bridge,\u201d one of only two in private hands with this subject matter that is expected to sell in Monday night\u2019s Impressionism and Modern auction for more than $50 million. It is one of only three works in the sale with a guarantee \u2014 a pledged minimum price; the others are a Picasso and a van Gogh.<\/p>\n

The auction house also secured the collection of Steven and Ann Ames, New York arts patrons, for its Contemporary sale Thursday evening \u2014 albeit with the help of a $100 million guarantee. It includes two colorful paintings by Gerhard Richter (one from 1986 and one from 1988), each estimated at $20 million to $30 million.<\/p>\n

Christie\u2019s\u2019 highlights include a 1977 Willem de Kooning work, \u201cUntitled XXV,\u201d one of the artist\u2019s large \u201cpastoral\u201d paintings, which is expected to sell for around $40 million on Tuesday night, at its Postwar and Contemporary sale. On Wednesday night, Christie\u2019s Impressionist and Modern star lots include the Monet grainstack from 1891, which is expected to sell for more than $45 million, and a 1961 example of Jean Dubuffet\u2019s Paris Circus series, estimated at $15 million to $20 million.<\/p>\n

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Edvard Munch\u2019s \u201cThe Girls on the Bridge\u201d (1902), secured by Sotheby\u2019s.<\/span> Credit<\/span>via Sotheby’s<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Earlier the same night, Phillips has Mr. Richter\u2019s \u201cD\u00fcsenjager,\u201d estimated at $25 million to $35 million, part of a small group of warplane pictures created between 1963 and 1964. (Paul Allen is the seller.)<\/p>\n

After Sunday\u2019s brunch preview at Christie\u2019s, not everyone came away impressed. \u201cThe estimates are 40 percent lower than last year,\u201d said Jacques Seguin, a Swiss collector. \u201cThe electricity is not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the auction houses, they say they learned from last year, when they priced estimates too high, and they are hopeful that the certainty of the election\u2019s outcome could make some buyers more confident about bidding.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people are very happy with this result and will feel richer and more inclined to buy art, and some people will feel destabilized by the unknown and still more inclined to buy art,\u201d said Simon Shaw, Sotheby\u2019s worldwide co-head of Impressionist and Modern art. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of demand out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much demand, auction houses say, that in many cases sellers \u2014 including the undisclosed consignor of the de Kooning at Christie\u2019s, for example \u2014 have declined guarantees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not in need of selling,\u201d said Brett Gorvy, Christie\u2019s worldwide chairman for postwar and contemporary art. \u201cThey\u2019d rather have the painting back\u201d if it doesn\u2019t sell.<\/p>\n

Given a shortage of masterpieces, auction houses have been forced to get creative.<\/p>\n

Phillips is selling Roy Lichtenstein\u2019s \u201cNudes in Mirror\u201d (1994), which was slashed by a deranged woman in 2005 while on exhibition in Vienna. Typically, an auction house would play down that kind of damage to a painting. Instead, Phillips has produced a separate section of the catalog detailing its history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may not add to the value but it adds to the story,\u201d Mr. Manley, of Phillips, said. \u201cWe\u2019ll find out on Nov. 16 what the market thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Correction: November 15, 2016 <\/strong>
\nBecause of an editing error, an article on Monday about how the first major art auctions after the presidential election may signal the market\u2019s reaction to the result referred incorrectly to the sale of guaranteed works. External financiers typically receive part of the buyers\u2019 fees; it is not the sellers who receive part of the fees. And while the profit can at times be minimal for auction houses, it is also not unusual for them to make a substantial profit on guarantees.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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