Author Archives: Colin Gleadell

Less than two weeks after New York auction houses racked up nearly $900 million in contemporary art sales at spring auctions, demand was still robust as Sotheby’s London saw works from another private collection surge past estimates. Read More

LONDON—Modern British art easily outperformed the new sales mix of Victorian, early 20th-century, sporting, marine, Irish, and Scottish art, at Sotheby’s in London on May 10–11. The latter, a combination of several, previously stand-alone sale categories that have been experiencing dwindling results wrapped into one catalogue, felt like a random mixture, observers said. Read More

The contemporary art market powered on at Sotheby’s on May 9 when $266.6 million was garnered, well within the $216 million/304 million estimate, establishing another batch of record prices. Read More

A surge in overall contemporary art sales at this year’s spring auctions, a two-week series that began with Impressionist and modern art, helped propel the season to $1.4 billion, one of the highest totals in recent years, but still below the $1.75 billion peak of the previous market boom reached in fall 2007 (ANL, 11/27/07). Read More

The European Art Fair (TEFAF) celebrated its Silver Jubilee in Maastricht, March 16–25, attracting 72,000 visitors, among whom were collectors from the US, Europe, China and the Middle East, and representatives of 234 different museums from around the globe. Read More

Buyers were on a high at the March 13 sale of the collection of dancer Serge Lifar’s estate, held at auction house Hôtel des Ventes, Geneva. Read More

Bonhams started London’s winter contemporary art sales on Feb. 13. Read More

Phillips de Pury & Company rounded off the week with a small, but solid, sale in which 23 out of 25 lots were sold, mostly below estimates. Read More

Sotheby’s picked up where Christie’s left off and continued in much the same vein for its evening sale of contemporary art on Feb. 15. Read More

Contemporary art sales in London at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams and Phillips de Pury & Company (Feb. 13–16) pulled in a healthy total of £182.9 million ($287.2 million), compared with the £187.4 million ($303.6 million) achieved last February (ANL, 3/8/11). Read More

The market felt several degrees cooler at Sotheby’s shorter and less-than-jam packed Impressionist and modern art sale on Feb. 8. Although a healthy 77 percent of the 53 lots offered were sold, three of the four highest-estimated lots were unsold, and the £78.9 million ($125.5 million) total barely scraped the lower end of the presale £77.3 million/111.2 million estimate. Read More

Christie’s evening Impressionist and modern art sale on Feb. 7 got London’s fortnight of major sales off to a flying start with a £135 million ($213 million) auction that exceeded its presale estimate of £86 million/127 million. Of 88 lots offered, 76, or 86 percent, were sold and the auction achieved several notable record prices. The sale was a big improvement on last February’s £84.9 million ($135.8 million) total, and included the traditional Surrealist art section, which achieved £37 million ($58.8 million), the highest yet for a Christie’s London Surrealist sale. Read More