Hats off to Sotheby’s for being the first to test out a digital-only, live-stream auction for the highest-priced art — and for passing with flying colours. At the start of its June 29 sale, auctioneer Oliver Barker, standing in front of several screens from mission control in London, announced that “The auction of the future is here.”
Unusually for an auction house, this wasn’t too much of an exaggeration. It was certainly the auction of the present: social-distancing guidance meant that Sotheby’s shiny specialists stood two metres apart on phone banks in New York, London and Hong Kong, taking bids with dramatic vigour. Close-up camera shots of their arms in the air and Barker’s lively banter added to the entertainment value, with the action screened live through Sotheby’s website and Cheddar, a news network owned by Sotheby’s increasingly useful new owner, Patrick Drahi.
Social media was abuzz with auction newbies claiming to be “addicted” (though possibly not for the full five hours), while seasoned buyers also took to the format. The sale’s 74 lots of Impressionist-to-contemporary art made a total, within-estimate $311.7m ($363.2m with fees) — below the usual haul, but not bad going in the midst of a global pandemic. Top lot was Francis Bacon’s “Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus” (1981), which sold for $74m ($84.6m with fees, est $60m-$80m), despite not being protected by a guarantee. The triptych provided additional excitement as an online underbidder, later identified by Sotheby’s as from China, was prepared to click up to the $73.1m mark. In the end the work was bought over the phone via New York, by far the busiest city of the night.
Sotheby’s can still claim the record for the highest price work sold online as Basquiat’s “Untitled (Head)” (1982) went for $13.1m ($15.2m with fees, est $9m-$12m). Female artists performed particularly well, including those that made up the bulk of the 18 works from the collection of Ginny Williams, a Denver gallerist who died last year. These all sold, for a total $55m ($65.5m with fees).
Pent-up demand and the novelty value of a pricey shopping-channel won’t last for ever but Sotheby’s opening shot sends a strong signal just when it is needed. Despite the traditional rivalry, Christie’s will be relieved by the response to the format as it prepares for its own livestream evening sale, estimated to make at least $336m on July 10.
The rumour mill is now in overdrive that Art Basel’s owner, MCH Group, has a stake to sell. A spokesman for the media mogul Rupert Murdoch scotches reports that he is among potential investors, saying that Murdoch senior has never been involved in a bid. But his son James — said by the Swiss newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft to be negotiating on behalf of his father — may yet turn out to be the interested party. Meanwhile, the art collector and private investor Annette Schoemmel says her business is “assessing to make a bid or any other type of investments into MCH, with the ultimate goal to carve-out Art Basel.” She believes the potential of the art fair brand “goes well beyond three art fairs”. A spokesman for MCH says that negotiations are “ongoing” but would not comment on any specific interested parties.
Lévy Gorvy is the next international gallery to make its mark in Paris and will open later this year in the third arrondissement Jean Nouvel-designed Marais building that previously housed the collection of film director Claude Berri. Dominique Lévy, co-founder of Lévy Gorvy, says that the decision to add the French capital to its spaces in London, New York and Hong Kong was not just a reaction to the EU referendum. “Brexit maybe gave Paris a boost, but I’ve been amazed by the city’s energy these past two years or so,” says Lévy, who also has a home there. She acknowledges that now is not the ideal time to set up a new shop — her gallery’s business has fallen by around 80 per cent during Covid-19, she says, while temporary pay cuts are in place across the board and there have been a small number of redundancies too. “Paris is another responsibility, at a difficult time, but I had to choose between love and business, and I chose love,” Lévy says. The architect Luis Lapace has been commissioned to remodel the site.
Other mega-galleries are also growing during the pandemic. Next week, Hauser & Wirth opens up its three-floor space on the Rämistrasse in the historic centre of its hometown of Zurich. The gallery previously used the restored building as a private viewing room.
In a letter to his brother in 1886, Vincent van Gogh said of the Dutch Golden Age artist Frans Hals that he had “no fewer than 27 blacks”. Now Sotheby’s has a prime example by the Haarlem painter as it offers a rediscovered 1635 portrait for between £2m and £3m next month.
“No one had seen the work since it was auctioned in 1953 and it didn’t look like much from black and white photos,” says George Gordon, Sotheby’s co-chairman of Old Master Paintings. A clean-up by Martin Bijl, the former head of restoration at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, has revealed Hals’s distinct, assured brushstrokes: “on the diagonal, upper left to lower right,” Gordon explains. The work will be joined by a rare-to-market Rembrandt self-portrait (est £12m-£16m) at Sotheby’s mixed-category sale on July 28.
Cross-category art gets an additional boost this week as 52 galleries and auction houses participate in London Art Week (July 3-10). Pieces on offer span the 2nd century AD — a Roman male torso through Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch (£30,000) — to the 21st-century. Many dealers have opened their doors in real life as London cautiously welcomes in-person trade, but the collaboration is of course also online, with works helpfully organised by artistic periods. Additional Viewing Rooms include a section for works priced below £30,000 (londonartweek.co.uk). A hybrid gallery weekend, comprising 60 modern and contemporary galleries, also takes place in Paris and online across this weekend (parisgalleryweekend.com, July 2-5).
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2020-07-02 04:14:16Z
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