No buyer for Russian masterpiece
It was expected to go for up to $3 million. The financial crisis has hit the art market.
NEW YORK - On Day 2 of the fall auction season, a Russian masterpiece expected to sell for up to $3 million did not find a buyer yesterday, further underscoring the impact of the global financial crisis on the art market.
Not one hand went up when
View of St. Petersburg
by Alexei Petrovich Bogoliubov was offered at Sotheby's morning sale of important Russian works from the impressionist and modern periods.
Many other works sold at or below their presale estimates; others did not sell at all. Final results were unavailable because sales were still under way.
It was the second day of lackluster bidding at the annual fall art season. On Monday, Sotheby's launched the season with masterpieces by Edgar Degas, Kazimir Malevich and Edvard Munch that fetched impressive prices. But a high percentage also went unsold - 25 works did not sell while 45 did.
Ian Peck, chief executive of the art finance firm Art Capital Group, had predicted that yesterday's lineup, which emphasized Russian work, would be a test of the "appetite and interest" of Russian buyers.
The high-end art market had stumbled in recent months as hedge fund traders, financiers and other deep-pocketed buyers from Russian, Europe and the Middle East have fallen victim to turmoil in global markets.
Monday's mixed results "firmly demonstrated that the concept of a recession in the art market is not abstract but real," Peck said. "Prices in all categories - the trophies, the great and the merely very good - were less contested, if at all, and end prices were likely reduced by 20 to 40 percent."
Christie's was to begin its first auction of the season last night with paintings, sculptures and decorative arts from two private collections of works by Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet and Cezanne. Its combined presale estimate was $130 million.
Among the highlights of the Alex and Rita Hillman collection are Manet's
Fillette sur un banc
, with a presale estimate of $12 million to $18 million, and Toulouse-Lautrec's
Portrait de Henri Nocq
, at $6 million to $8 million.
The second collection, owned by designer and philanthropist Alice Lawrence, includes Mark Rothko's
No. 43 (Mauve)
. Painted in 1960, it could fetch as much as $30 million.
Many of the estimates were set in the summer, when financial markets in Europe, Asia and Russia were still strong. Christie's said it now is asking its sellers to be realistic.
"Without a doubt, we will be calling consignors on some of the lots and discussing the interest level in them," said Guy Bennett, its international co-head of impressionist and modern art.