Old Masters
The Old Masters sector was shaken by high-profile forgery claims that led Sotheby’s to reimburse the buyer of a $10 million painting now believed to be a fake, and launch a special department for scientific research. Still, Peter Paul Rubens’s “Lot and his Daughters" fetched $58 million at Christie’s in July. Next June, a newly discovered Leonardo da Vinci drawing valued at 15 million euros ($15.7 million) will offered for sale at French auction house Tajan.
Asia
Asian collectors have become such a force in the market that Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips are delaying their London sales next year -- traditionally in early February -- until later in the month and into March, after the Chinese New Year. David Zwirner, one of the biggest art galleries, is planning to open a Hong Kong branch. Sotheby’s, whose largest shareholder is Chinese company Taikang Life Insurance, recently named its first Asian director. In Hong Kong last month, Phillips sold $50 million of contemporary art, design and watches while Christie’s made multiple sales from its special exhibition of Western art.
Russian Art
Russian avant-garde will be in focus next year because of the upcoming centenary of the October Revolution of 1917. The Museum of Modern Art in New York explores the artistic innovation between 1912 and 1935, which produced radical works such as Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square,” in a special exhibition on view through March 12. Another major show is planned for Tate Modern in London in November. Prices are already starting to climb. Sotheby’s set auction records for Alexander Rodchenko and Ilya Chashnik in London last month.
Fans of the movement include Claude Ruiz Picasso, a son of Pablo. “Russian avant-garde is something very close to my heart,” Ruiz Picasso said in an interview in Miami, where he designed a standout booth at Galerie Gmurzynska at Art Basel. “Its revolutionary spirit, its total, complete leap into the future.”
Online Sales
The online art market is growing at an annual rate of 24 percent and expected to reach $9.58 billion by 2020, according to a report by insurer Hiscox Ltd. At Sotheby’s, Internet buyers spent $155 million in 2016, up 20 percent from a year earlier, and about half of all online bidders were new to the auction house. Christie’s doubled the number of its online-only sales this year. The young, global, tech-savvy audience of startup Artsy participated in 41 auctions of its partners such as Phillips and Sotheby’s -- and the company expects to quadruple such collaborations in 2017. A Basquiat painting sold via Instagram for $24 million in November.
Sotheby’s Stock
After falling as low as $19.13 in February on a gloomy outlook, Sotheby’s stock is ending the year with a rally. Often a barometer for the art market, Sotheby’s jumped almost 8 percent to $41.35 on Dec. 16 after Cowen analyst Oliver Chen upgraded the stock to outperform and raised the price target to $45 from $38. “With new management and the company’s turnaround underway, we believe BID’s transformation is in the early innings and likely to gain momentum in 2017,” Chen said in his report.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.