Auctioneers were over-optimistic…

As we suspected in our previous Insight article, (Prices disconnected from market reality?), a number of the estimates for the masterpieces offered at the New York sales on 1 & 2 November were disconnected from the market reality.

New York’s Impressionist & Modern sales produce very mixed results

The two days of Impressionist & Modern auctions in New York saw the art market in full roller-coaster mode: after a very uninspiring evening at Christie's that generated just $56.8m on 3 November 2009 (vs. $116.9m on 6 November 2008), Sotheby’s posted $102m more than its rival ($158.6m vs. $196.8m on 3 November 2008) the following day and several new records.

No surprise in London

The results of the Impressionist & Modern sales in London last week were without surprise (except for the withdrawal of Camille PISSARRO ’s, Le Quai Malaquais) and made the era of 8-figure auction results an even more distant memory. Both auction houses generated eight sales above the $1m line. The bought-in rate was not identical however: 15% at Sotheby’s (out of 27 lots presented) and 32% at Christie’s (out of 45 lots offered).

New York penalised by the crisis

Since January 2008, prices in the Impressionist & Modern Art segment have posted a cumulative fall of roughly 30% and they contracted no less than 10% in the first quarter of 2009 alone. So, inevitably, the first day of the Impressionist & Modern Art sales in New York was awaited as a test of the top-end of the market.

The most buoyant art movements of 2005

Artprice has established a ranking of art movements based on price progressions in 2005.

Propelled by a major exhibition since 5 October at the Pompidou Centre, Dada takes the lead with a 137% rise in its price index since the beginning of the year.
However, the Dadism movement lasted only eight years from 1916 to 1924 and supply remains very limited. Not a single work by Duchamp, Sophie TAEUBER-ARP or Hans ARP produced during this short period appeared at auction in 2005.

Max Ernst (1891-1976)

Between 7 April and 10 July, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will host a retrospective of Max Ernst, the first of its scale to be shown in New York in thirty years. Through some 180 works, including paintings, collages, drawings, sculptures and illustrated books, the exhibition shows the diversity of the work of one of the pillars of the surrealist movement.

Surrealist photography market

"Begierde im Blick" (the Gaze of Desire) is the main theme of the major exhibition on surrealist photography held at the Kunsthalle, Hamburg running until 29 May 2005. An element of the surrealism movement since its beginnings in 1924, photography allowed to capture images and sensations taken from "real" life. For MAN RAY , Jacques-André BOIFFARD , Hans BELLMER , Manuel ALVAREZ BRAVO , Raoul UBAC , André KERTÉSZ , Herbert BAYER and Claude CAHUN , photography provided a way to present a surrealist vision of the world: an impossible reality.

Marathon of surrealist auctions: 4,100 lots in one sale

The extraordinary and much-envied art collection amassed by André Breton during his time at 42 rue Fontaine is coming up for auction. The collection will be broken up during the longest auction ever held (1-18 April), at Hôtel Drouot. This eagerly awaited and controversial sale is already marked in diaries round the world as a must-see by all collectors interested in fresh and historic works.

2003 will be Surreal

After breathtaking price rises at the end of the nineties, can Surrealism still inspire dreams? With another outstanding auction at Christie’s due to take place on 3 February and André Breton’s personal collection coming up for sale in April, Artprice brings you an update of the latest market trends.