Market Update - how is the art market holding up?
The following article first appeared in the HSBC Design & Art Advisory Winter newsletter, a quarterly publication from HSBC Private Bank (UK) Limited.
Despite the economic slow-down, good quality artwork is attracting buyers and this is encouraging sellers to offer fine works on the market.
Towards the end of last year, the Basquiat painting, Untitled (Boxer), sold for $13.5m - $1.5m above its estimated figure. We also noted an artist record for Joseph Cornell – a wooden box called Pharmacy (1943) sold for $3.7m, above the estimate of $2m – and Yayoi Kusama, whose 1959 painting No.2 sold for $5.7m, above its estimate of $3.5m. Sotheby’s recorded record prices for Richard Serra, John Currin and Philip Guston. |
"..we still saw impressive results from the Russian sales.."
Given the challenging conditions in the Russian economy we still saw impressive results from the Russian sales notably Larionov’s oil on canvas Reclining Nude, which sold for £1,385,250 (with a low end estimate of £1.2m) and a Fabergé silver-gilt pearl and enamel heartshaped photograph frame, which sold to a telephone bidder for £229,250, almost four times its pre-sale low estimate (est.£60,000–80,000).
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