Between-Sale Ruminations on the Art Market and the Stock Market

Whatever you may feel about the impressive success of Sotheby's contemporary sale last night, the stock market seems to be nonplussed. Sotheby's publicly traded shares have continued the fall that began on May 8, which was the day of its big Impressionist/modern sale and the day after its announcement of solid first-quarter results.

As of 11:10 a.m., the stock was at $44.97, down from its closing price of $52.40 on May 8.

I can only think that (CEO William Ruprecht's comments about quality-over-quantity notwithstanding) when it comes to investors' mindsets, market share still counts. Although it's unlikely to top Sotheby's top price last night---$72.84 million for David Rockefeller's Rothko---Christie's does stand a good chance of making Sotheby's $254.87-million sale total (including buyer's premium) a very fleeting record for a contemporary art sale. The estimated hammer total for tonight's sale is $225-305 million, to which the buyer's premium will be added.

The focus will be on Warhol, whose "Green Car Crash" is estimated at $25-35 million. I had to laugh when I read art consultant Sandy Heller's comments to ABC News about that work. ABC reports:

Sandy Heller, who advises collectors on purchases, said that while it "is a great piece," it is also "a very tough image" that some might find hard to live with.

"It's hard to put an image of impaled figure in a burning car in a home where you have little kids," Heller said.

Isn't he the one who advises hedge fund mogul Steven Cohen, whose decomposing Hirst shark is again discussed in today's Wall Street Journal?

We can only wonder whether Heller may have the best interests of one of his Warhol-loving clients at heart. As I wrote many years ago in my book, "The Complete Guide to Collecting Art":

The most disparaging presale remarks about a work sometimes come from the person who winds up purchasing it. When dealer Richard Feigen was commissioned by a collector to buy an Impressionist painting that Feigen considered "an exceptional work of art," he actively tried to discourage other people. "I did not extol the painting when people asked my opinion and I tried to put people off it, if they were people to whom I did not have a fiduciary responsibility....

I got the painting for about 60 percent of what the client was prepared to pay. He was ecstatic."

May 16, 2007 11:40 AM | | Comments (0)

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Me Elsewhere

Highlights from my writings and broadcasts: 


MY BOOK
The Complete Guide to Collecting Art (Knopf)

IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA
NY TIMES OP-EDS:
For Sale: Our Permanent Collection (museum deaccessions)
Fashion Victim (Chanel at the Met)
Destroying the Museum to Save It (Barnes Foundation)
Reassembling Sundered Antiquities (Parthenon marbles)

WALL STREET JOURNAL:
Los Angeles' New Broad Museum of Contemporary Art
Philadelphia's New Perelman Building
The Walton Effect: Art World Is Roiled by Wal-Mart Heiress

Tricks of the Auction Trade

The Seattle Art Museum: A Work in Progress

Upside Down and Backward, Yet Tame (Boston ICA)
Edith Wharton's Library Is Now an Open Book
Extreme Makeover: Smithsonian Edition (American Art and Portrait Gallery renovation)
This Museum's Expansion is Simply Effective (Minneapolis Institute)
Truth in Booty: Coming--and Staying--Clean (antiquities controversies)
A Betrayal of Trust (NY Public Library's art sales)
The Lost Museum (MoMA's art sales)
Endangered Species (single-collector jewel-box museums)
Money in Motion (the Guggenheim's finances)
The Fine Art of Genocide? (appraisals of Hitler's art)

LA TIMES OP-EDS:
Make Art Loans, Not War
Museums Can't Compete (public collecting endangered)

ART IN AMERICA:
Refreshing the Smithsonian (the renovated SAAM and NPG)
The Atrium That Ate the Morgan (Renzo Piano's addition)
Hot Pots and Potshots (controversies over museum antiquities)
Musings on Museums (book review of "Whose Muse?")

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO:
Criticism of AAM's Cultural Diplomacy Initiative

NEW YORK PUBLIC RADIO:
Guggenheim Director Steps Down
Philippe de Montebello's Retirement
Fall '07 Art Auctions
Metropolitan Museum's "Age of Rembrandt" Show
Commentary on the Art Market
Tour of Sculpture Gardens, with Slideshow
Audio Commentary on the Met's New Greek and Roman Galleries
Glenn Lowry's Unorthodox Compensation Package
Commentary on the Art Market

PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC RADIO:
Museums' Purchase and Sale of Eakins' Works (about one-third of the way into the program)
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' sale of Eakins' "The Cello Player"

BBC-TV:
Impressionist/Modern Auction at Sotheby's

more of me elsewhere

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About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by CultureGrrl published on May 16, 2007 11:40 AM.

Sotheby's Contemporary: Official Tallies of a Record-Studded Sale was the previous entry in this blog.

Christie's Wild and Wacky Night: Boisterous Bidding and Senior Moments is the next entry in this blog.

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