2011 top results

Every fortnight Artprice posts a new or updated ranking in its Alternate-Friday Top Series. The theme of today's TOP article is the Top 10 global auction results in 2011.

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.

Prices disconnected from market reality?

At a time when Artprice’s Art Market Confidence Index shows purchase intentions exceeding 70%, auction estimates for Impressionist & Modern Art in New York are still rising.

The best-ever 2010 auction results

Every fortnight Artprice posts a new or updated ranking in its Alternate-Friday Top Series. The topic of today's TOP article is the 10 best auction results in 2010.

Auction records at Christie's

Every fortnight Artprice posts a new or updated ranking in its Alternate-Friday Top Series. The theme of today's TOP article is the 10 best-ever auction results generated by Christie’s.

The 10 best results on the London art market in 2010

Every fortnight Artprice provides you with a new or updated ranking in its Alternate-Friday Top Series. The theme of today's TOP article is the 10 best auction results in London this year.

Paris / London – forthcoming Impressionist & Modern Art sales

Before the art world settles down to a quiet summer, we can look forward to some profitable auction results in London at the sale of the Polaroid collection (to pay its debts) on 21 and 22 June, the Impressionist & Modern Art sales of 23 and 24 June and the Contemporary Art sales of 28 and 29 June.

A wave of optimism at the London sales

Christie’s and Sotheby’s have won their gamble. The Impressionist & Modern Art sales on 2 and 3 February in London generated one global all-segment record and 29 results above £1m out of 87 lots offered. Christie's managed to sell 87.5% of its lots for £61m (est. £48m-69m) plus the £8.5m from its special session devoted to surrealist art.

Impressionist and Modern sales in London – unabashed confidence!

Since the peak in January 2008, the price index of Impressionist art has contracted sharply: down 39.3%. But for Christie’s and Sotheby’s – judging by the high estimates in the catalogues for their upcoming London sales – the price deflation is now over.

Top 10 artists

Each artist makes their own, large or small, contribution to the total market. And ranking them by auction turnover gives a good indication of market conditions, preferences and trends. Every year Artprice ranks artists by this criterion.

Christie’s turns over USD 491.4 million from one sale

As expected, Christie's auction of Impressionist and Modern art has confirmed that the art market is running at historical highs. In a single evening session involving a total of 78 lots, the auction house generated the astonishing figure of USD 491.4 million, the highest ever turnover at a single sale, far higher than Sotheby's previous global record of USD 286 million notched up in May 1990.

Sale of the year…

The impressionist and modern art sales are the centrepiece of the New York auction season. As ever, Sotheby's and Christie's catalogues include some exceptional pieces.

Symbolism - Giving shape to ideas

With so few major works coming up for sale, prints constitute the majority of sales in this segment.

The leading lights of symbolism are Edward Coley BURNE-JONES (English), Pierre PUVIS DE CHAVANNES , Gustave MOREAU , Félicien ROPS and Odilon REDON (all French), Arnold BÖCKLIN (Swiss), James ENSOR (Belgian) and Edvard MUNCH (Norwegian).

Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka, Vienna 1900

Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka is the title of the next exhibition organised by the Grand Palais in Paris and opening on 5 October 2005. Visitors will discover a selection of 50 paintings and nearly 100 works on paper on the core themes of the four Viennese masters: allegories, landscapes and portraits.

Gloomy times for impressionists while modernists triumph

The US art market was in fine form at the Impressionism and Modern Art evening sales. Thanks to a number of wealthy American bidders, several major lots went for more than their high estimates. A healthy 75 of 102 lots put up found buyers on the evenings of 4 and 5 November, and total turnover was USD 216 million.

New York under the spotlight

The evenings of 4 and 5 November see two of the biggest media events of the year: the eagerly awaited New York Impressionist & Modern Art sales. The art market is generally having a thin time, but is the same true at the very top end? We will find out when we see how the world’s wealthiest collectors receive the exceptional pieces on the stands in New York.

Symbolism: strongly-contrasting price fluctuations in a multi-faceted movement.

Around 1890, in a reaction against impressionism and the creeping materialism of the industrial revolution, a new pictorial language began to emerge across Europe, symbolism. Not content with reproducing the real world, the symbolists broke away from narrative and landscape art and its canons, and sought to connect with their viewers’ sensitivity through shapes and colours. Prices for their work have risen steadily in the past 10 years (+116% between 1992 and June 2003), but the diverse personalities and nationalities making up the symbolism movement is reflected in a wide variation in prices.

Gustav Klimt: Austrian landscapes celebrated

The Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere’s “Gustav Klimt — landscape” is the first exhibition exclusively devoted to this aspect of Klimt’s work. These light-filled and peaceful canvases come up for auction very rarely, and they command the highest prices of all Klimt’s work.