Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on On Balance, to ARTnews newsletter on the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.
The year started on a cool day, with 100 percent visibility. At least that’s how it seemed at the time. Christie’s was still soaring from the November 2022 night sales, when Paul Allen’s collection fetched $1.5 billion. If that sales season was any indication, the market was all high and frothy. ART SG, the Singapore-based art fair, finally launched its inaugural edition in January (with a little help from Art Basel’s parent company, MCH Group), and Patti Wong’s new regional advisory pointed to Asia as the next base of the art market. .
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The perspectives of the world, and of the art market, were not so optimistic.
In early March, the hike in sales taxes in the European Union caused a stir among artists and retailers. By April, the recession, a supposed consequence of the end of low interest rates and cheap money, was occurring in all financial sectors. Still, the worlds of finance and art have become closer than ever. Meanwhile, a report from arts sector recruitment firm Sophie Macpherson Ltd. revealed that sales managers at some American commercial galleries were making more than $400,000 a year and that the gallery giants were gobbling up artists like turkeys at Thanksgiving.
The winds of change really began to blow in May. Sales at Phillips, Christie’s and Sotheby’s produced results ranging from middling to downright disappointing. If there was one clear sign that the flood of post-Covid sales has abated, it was at Christie’s New York auction of the Gerald Fineberg collection, where most lots, if sold, hammered or fell short of their low estimates. On the fair circuit, Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz has hired Maike Cruse to run his flagship fair, the first of many chess moves aimed at securing the brand’s future.
Earlier this summer, Sotheby’s London took Klimt to cross the auction mark amid growing concern about a market slump that was keenly felt at Christie’s London despite a list of 20th and 21st century night sales that read like a art history textbook. Sotheby’s also got a glimpse into the world of owner Patrick Drahi’s plans for the auction house’s future when it bought the Whitney’s Breuer Building, which would become the house’s new global headquarters next year.
Despite the economic turmoil, Frieze in July announced the acquisition of both the Armory Show and Expo Chicago, while Art Basel hired Bridget Finn to run the Miami Beach fair. Still, by then, the black cloud hanging over the market was undeniable. Sotheby’s and Phillips have reduced their respective herds, and Christie’s, having badly misjudged interest in the generative artificial intelligence market, announced a 23 percent drop in sales in the first half of the year.
Phillips followed suit in August, announcing a 40 percent drop in sales in the first half of 2023. That same month Christie’s and Sotheby’s began a protracted battle over the Emily Fisher Landau collection, a sale they had likely been hoping for. could fine tune the market.
By September, most of the art world had accepted that things were no longer easy. And the problems affected more than just balance sheets. Frieze Seoul and the Armory Show opened just days apart, prompting people to ponder the perceived conflict of interest in the Frieze purchase and the future of the New York fair. Meanwhile, court documents revealed that Christie’s, which earlier this month had to cancel a lucrative sale of Heidi Horten’s jewelry because of her unsavory lifestyle choices, had been fighting import tariffs spurred by the U.S. trade war with china
A cursory look at the year last October showed how far the needle had moved. Sales in London were disappointing, which by now could hardly have been a surprise, and when a number of galleries closed in midtown Manhattan, upstart hopefuls and longtime power traders began to pour in. An auction record for an artist of African descent when one of her paintings was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for $9.32 million (with fees).
While top US artists took the auction block during the November sales, results over that week were expected to be flat, thanks to a new air of conservatism among top collectors. Still, those with the means were happy to splurge on the right piece, the proof lies in the 1961 Sotheby’s sale of Agnes Martin. Gray Stone IIfrom the Emily Fisher Landau Collection, which brought a record $18.7 million (with fees).
The last month of 2023 has the art world looking back more clearly at the year that passed (although some may still be hungover from Miami, which was said to lack its characteristic. pop). Christie’s, in announcing its end-of-year projections, blamed a more than 20 percent drop in revenue on a temporary uptick in Paul Allen’s remarkable sale. Sotheby’s has released its auction calendar a full year in advance, which is somewhat unheard of in the auction business, as if giving them a sign of what’s to come.
The only half-certainty here is that the market in 2024 should look a little better than it did this year, either because the work on offer will be better, or because players will have finally come out of Plato’s Cave and seen what it’s really like. .
Review of the year:
- To round out the year, the ARTnews staff put together a package of everything you need to know about 2023, Including the artistic events, exhibitions and works of art that define the year.
- Senior Editor Alex Greenberger about how this year’s deluge of Picasso exhibitions on the 50th anniversary of his death has taught us absolutely nothing new.
- Associate Editor Tessa Solomon on How the war in the Middle East broke, perhaps irrevocably, the world consensus of art.
- Senior Writer Karen K. Ho about the British Museum’s decisive and disastrous year filled with scandal and stalling change.
- Contributing writer Gameli Hamelo on the increased demand for African art and the continued growth of art scenes in Lagos, Accra and other African centers.
- Contributing Writer Shantay Robinson about the Myriad Major Exhibitions of Black Artists at the New Museum, Whitney, Art Institute of Chicago and more.
- Contributing Writer Reena Devi on the top art market trends in Asia to watch in 2024.
