Art finance

Aggressive estimates rather than a fallout from credit-market losses were responsible for the first ‘wobble’ in the international art market, say Sotheby’s.

Auction houses and antiques malls in the United States are reporting a surge in overseas buying on the internet thanks to the weak dollar.

Sotheby’s have posted their highest price in Paris since the French auction market was opened to foreign firms in 2001.

THE French government are so concerned about their dwindling share of the global art market that they have come up with a four-point plan to rescue it. They include a measure that effectively calls for the scrapping of due diligence for auctioneers.

GOLD reached a 27-year high last Friday thanks to the weakness of the US dollar, fears that it will continue to drop, and soaring oil prices. Other factors may include the pending Diwali Festival in India when it is traditional for people to give gifts of gold.

Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted cast of a human skull has been bought by a group of anonymous investors, which apparently includes himself, for its asking price of £50m.

NOBLE Investments, the publicly listed coins company and owners of Baldwin’s auctioneers, have branched out into the stamps market.

BOOMING art auctions and a massive growth in private sales have helped Sotheby’s to another set of record totals – this time for the first six months of 2007.

Half-yearly Paris figures to August showed Christie’s consolidating their lead with sales of €100.3m (£67.3m), nearly twice as much as their nearest rivals, ArtCurial.

LONDON has gained ground in the global art market during 2007 with over $2.35bn in sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s for the first six months of the year. In their US rooms the two leading auctioneers took $2.6bn over the same period.

France’s share of the global auction market fell by 5.8 per cent in 2006, warns the Conseil des Ventes, the national auction watchdog, in its annual report published on June 25. Worldwide auction activity, it says, rose 34 per cent over the same period.

Demand for contemporary art reached yet another new level of intensity in London’s auction rooms last week when Christie’s and Sotheby’s both posted record totals of nearly £75m for their June evening sales of contemporary works.

THE market for early English portrait miniatures received a sizeable fillip in London last week. The auction record was broken twice within the space of 24 hours with the sale of two iconic images of major figures in British history and this was backed up by a crop of other strong prices for top flight examples from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Art Deco bronze and ivory dancers inspired by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and other exotic themes have been racing up the price scale in recent months. The reason is rouble power.

More records fall in record NY art sales

SOTHEBY’S are celebrating a rarity – a profit in the first quarter of the year, when a seasonal dip in sales activity usually means making a loss.

VANCOUVER auction house Heffel have taken nearly £900,000 in a single online auction, including one painting which sold for more than £250,000.

Sotheby’s will launch a premium credit card later this spring. The Sotheby’s World and Sotheby’s World Elite cards are the product of a partnership between Mastercard and American finance house GE Money who hope to use Sotheby’s status as a luxury brand to attract high-net worth cardholders.

MORE details have emerged of how Sotheby’s are repositioning themselves to compete at the top end of the art market.

CHRISTIE’S International have raised the stakes in the frantically competitive post-War and Contemporary art markets by acquiring leading dealership Haunch of Venison.