Naakten Freddy Heineken bij Christie's onder de hamer

Een naakt van Jan Sluijters (1881-1957) dat in 2003 werd tentoongesteld in Rotterdam. Foto ANP

Naakten Freddy Heineken onder de hamer

(Bron: Het Parool)
AMSTERDAM - Veilinghuis Christie's brengt twee naakten uit de kunstcollectie van wijlen Freddy Heineken onder de hamer. Op 10 juni kunnen mensen bieden op een liggende roomblanke vrouw van Jan Sluijters en een exotische schone van Hendrik-Jan Wolter, liet het veilinghuis vrijdag weten.

Het schilderij Poserende Greet van Sluijters moet 180.000 tot 200.000 euro opleveren. De verwachte opbrengst van het doek Liggend Naakt van Wolter wordt geschat op 15.000 tot 20.000 euro. De twee werken maken deel uit van Christie's veiling van impressionistische en moderne kunst, waarbij ook topstukken van George Hendrik Breitner, Hendrik Willem Mesdag en Johannes Klinkenberg onder de hamer gaan.

De sensuele naakten van Jan Sluijters (1881-1957) brengen tegenwoordig hoge bedragen op. Zijn schilderijen van blote vrouwen golden aan het begin van de vorige eeuw nog als gewaagd. In 1911 werden twee Sluijters-naakten vanwege onzedelijkheid verwijderd uit het Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. (ANP)
http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/22/KUNST/article/detail/246649/2009/06/05/Naakten-Freddy-Heineken-onder-de-hamer.dhtml

New Art markets and the crisis

New markets and the crisis [Feb 09]

(Source ArtPrice ©)
The most speculative and volatile markets over the last four years, emerging art markets have propelled a number of Chinese, Indian, Russian and Middle-Eastern contemporary artists into the global limelight with extraordinary speed. But with so many young artists fetching such big figures at auctions, some kind of meltdown was inevitable.
The first consequences of the global financial crisis on the art market were felt in Hong Kong in 2008 at the Christie’s and Sotheby’s October sales. Indeed, China's art market has proved to be particularly sensitive and thousands of art market professionals are keenly watching developments in that country where the price index of contemporary art rose 583% between January 2004 and January 2009.

In 2007, driven by the financial strength of Hong Kong and the dynamism of Shanghai, China took third place on the global art market podium behind the United States and the United Kingdom. The rocketing price indices of Fanzhi ZENG, Xiaogang ZHANG, Lijun FANG, Minjun YUE, Guoqiang CAI and Guangyi WANG fuelled an unprecedented optimism, inspiring thousands of would-be artists across the country, prompting hundreds of new gallery openings and giving a very substantial boost to the Chinese art auction market. Just when our figures showed that one third of the world's top 100 contemporary artists (ranked by auction revenue) were from China, Bonhams decided to set up shop in Hong Kong (26 November 2007) alongside Christie’s and Sotheby’s who were already well established on the island. After Bonhams, Artcurial decided to head East with a first sale in Shanghai in January 2008. The following month in London, Sotheby’s was unable to sell Overwhelm by Minjun YUE, despite his leading position on the contemporary Chinese art scene. At the time, this was a rare event: only 9 paintings by the artist were bought in over 10 years (between 1997 and 2007). In 2008, the number was 12 …

After the record bought-in rates posted in October at Sotheby’s and Christie’s Hong Kong, the November and December sales confirmed the contraction of demand and the choosiness of buyers. Sales have not been frozen, but we are definitely seeing a sharp correction of the Chinese art market. Collectors are now being extremely selective both in terms of quality and price. Numerous works by the stars whose prices had risen too high (e.g. Lijun FANG, Minjun YUE, Xiaogang ZHANG and Fanzhi ZENG) sold below their low estimates or were bought in. The recent failure of an attempted quick sale of a painting by Xiaogang ZHANG at Est-Ouest Auctions Co. Hongkong drew a definitive veil over the speculative mood. The work in question is a portrait from the Big Family Series. Initially selling for CNY 8.5 million (USD 1.15 million) in November 2007, it failed to sell in December 2008 even after a substantial trim of its estimate (roughly USD 554,000).

The stars of contemporary Indian art are in more or less the same boat. Despite a 957% increase in the price index between January 2004 and January 2009, more than half of Subodh GUPTA's works offered from October to December 2008 were bought in. His important work Vehicle for Seven Seas III was bought in on 13 November, 2008 in New York despite carrying a reasonable price estimate (300,000 to 400,000) compared to the USD 625,000 that a work from the same series fetched in April 2008 (Artcurial, Paris, EUR 425,000). We find the same scenario in the field of Iranian art where nearly half the works offered for public sale by Farhad MOSHIRI (1963) have remained unsold. Back in March 2008, collectors at the Dubaï sales were a lot more extravagant, pushing up the price of Eshgh (Love) to USD 900,000, which was six times the estimated price (Bonhams).

The February Contemporary Art sales in London timidly propose 2 to 5 Chinese and Indian star attractions at Sotheby’s (5 February) and Christie’s (11 February), including the unavoidable Fanzhi ZENG and Anish KAPOOR. However, the real test will be in March and April 2009 with sales dedicated to Asian art.
On 12 February, Phillips de Pury & Company will be offering works by six Chinese artists, one Korean (Kim Whanki), two Indians (Hema UPADHYAY and Jiten & Sumir THUKRAL & TAGRA) and one Pakistani (Rashid RANA). Phillip’s is also participating in the emergence of the African artist El ANATSUI whose 2006 work entitled Congress of Elders is expected to fetch around GBP 200,000. Almost a complete stranger to the secondary art market, a work by this artist entitled Healer fetched USD 500,000 at Sotheby's London in October 2008… not the most favourable period for generating a new record…
Still buoyant throughout the first half of 2008, demand on these highly dynamic new markets has substantially contracted since the autumn. In a global crisis context, many works have become too expensive and speculative temptations are no longer on the agenda.
Nevertheless, among the major buyers of contemporary Russian, Chinese, Korean, Indian or Iranian art, profit is often not the primary motive. In recent years, many Russian and Chinese collectors have invested in the works of their compatriots in order to build coherent collections for foundations or museums.

The incredible shrinking saleroom

The incredible shrinking saleroom (Dec 24th 2008)
The high end Art Market, the auction houses and the end of the bubble.

It is about time to check for the Art Market Outlook for 2009, the best available information is to find on the Internet and from Art Magazines, Auction Houses like Christie's and Sotheby's and from resources elsewhere in the Art World. However, the Art Market is keeping up appearances and a clearer picture will emerge in the next three months.
The financial industry and banks have through the years usually been very generous with grants and gifts to museuns and the Arts in general, and due to the crisis a lot of those grants have been reduced or ended.
In the middle part of the market, Artists, dealers and galleries are beginning to feel the pinch of a shrinking market.
But first we will explore the top of the market.

A different version of this article research can be found at our stock market blog:
Blog: Beurskrach 2008 - Stock Market Crash, recession and the World Economy
Post: The high end Art Market, the auction houses and the end of the bubble.
Link: http://beurskrach.blogspot.com/2009/01/high-end-art-market-auction-houses-and.html


With more than 200.000 lay-offs in Wall Street alone and many more in London and other financial districts around the world, stock markets off between 35 % and 55% globally, property prices like in East Hampton fallen by over 35%, and the gobal recession taking shape, the high end Art Market can be expected to take a heavy hit.

(from The Economist) Neither of the main houses wants to be the first to announce job losses or cancelled sales, but there will be cuts. With smaller auctions comes the opportunity to reduce variable costs such as catalogues and marketing, where there is still a lot of fat.

If there is one lesson to be learned from the autumn it is that there is still an art market, and you can’t say that anymore about all markets. Demand is there for works of exceptional quality. The challenge will be to persuade sellers who don’t need to sell to continue consigning their very best works.

Just how difficult this will be can be seen from the fact that when asked about the coming sales, both houses ignore the Old-Master sales that will be held in New York at the end of January and focus instead on the Impressionist and modern sales the following month. Sotheby’s, for example, has separated a husband-and-wife pair of portraits by Frans Hals in the hope that they will make more apart than together. “The Portrait of a Man Holding Gloves” is estimated at $8m-12m whereas his much plainer consort, shown in “The Portrait of a Woman Holding a Handkerchief” has been set at $7m-9m. The pictures have been consigned by a New York collector and were recently shown in London as part of a marketing tour. Despite that, both pictures are being talked about by dealers and collectors as “not great Frans Hals”.

The outlook for February is brighter. Christie’s has six works from an important European collection. The consignment, which includes works by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, is led by a painting by Claude Monet. “Dans la Prairie”, which dates from 1876, was exhibited at the seminal third Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1877 in Paris. It was painted in Argenteuil, where Monet lived between 1871 and 1878, depicts the artist’s wife, Camille, reclined and reading amongst blooming flowers in an open meadow. It is expected to sell for around £15m. Sotheby’s has a rare work by Amadeo Modigliani dating back to 1913, which has been consigned by a British collector and which has not been seen at auction for nearly 30 years. Part of the “Caryatid” series on which Modigliani worked frequently in drawings, this version in oil has a highly sculptural feel.
The estimate has been set at £6m-8m.

But the sale that is generating the most excitement is the three-day auction of paintings, furniture, clothes and sculpture belonging to Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. Like the Damien Hirst sale, it will be a party. Christie’s is hoping it will be a bash. Sotheby’s, its rival, is also hoping the sale goes well, for if it does it will mean that perhaps things aren’t quite so bad as they seem.
Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale is in London on February 3rd 2009. Christie’s sale is on February 4th. The three sessions of Yves Saint Laurent/Pierre Bergé collection begin in Paris in February 23rd.