So…

“Late Friday afternoon Sotheby’s…reported that it had lost $28.2 million from guarantees at its contemporary art auctions last week. That brought its total losses to about $52 million this fall, all from guarantees. Executives at Christie’s…also admitted to having lost millions of dollars.”

Francis Bacon, Study for Self-Portrait, 1964. This painting, up for sale at Christie’s with a pre-sale estimate of $40 million US, failed to sell, despite the fact that a 1976 Bacon triptych went for $86.3 million in May.

However…

“Seasoned collectors…sat out the boom years and were now returning for what seemed like bargain prices. The Los Angeles financier Eli Broad, for example, could be seen near the front of the Sotheby’s salesroom last week and bought more than $8 million worth of art by Jeff Koons, Donald Judd, Ed Ruscha and Robert Rauschenberg at an auction he called a “half-price sale.”

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In a turn of events that was bound to happen eventually, advertising agencies have realized they can exploit a recent change in the law to sell space in St. Mark’s Square, Venice and make a large profit. An enormous billboard-sized watch ad featuring the villain of a James Bond film dominates the square opposite the Doges’ palace.

The colonnade surrounding piazza San Marco in Venice. Image: Frederick Muller/photo.net

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Sombre sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s mark end of art boom, says the FT.

“However, (Sotheby’s) managed to sell its star piece, an abstract work by Kazimir Malevich, for $53m - $60m after the buyers’ premium - after securing an irrevocable bid for the work. It had estimated it would sell for about $60m…”

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist composition (blue rectangle over purple beam), 1916 sold at Sotheby’s last week for $60,002,500. This was not only a record for the artist, but a record for any Russian work of art ever sold at auction. The masterwork was executed in 1916, the same year that Malevich published his Suprematist Manifesto.

This is evidence of the fracture that is currently taking place in the art market, where certain acknowledged masterpieces (historical, mid-century and contemporary) retain their value as mid-market works suffer.

Read the full article HERE.

Read a related article on the Sotheby’s sale from Artdaily.com HERE.

From the November 1 issue of the Globe and Mail, Jeremy Gerard writes from New York:

Barack Obama…is the first White House contender to include a far-reaching arts plank in his platform.

Barack Obama…looking good. Image: dcpox.com

The proposals range from increased support for arts education and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to changing the U.S. federal tax code for artists. “It is unprecedented”, said Robert L. Lynch, president and chief executive officer of Americans for the Arts, a Washington-based arts advocacy group, explaining that no U.S. presidential candidate in recent times has addressed cultural issues in such detail.

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“Things have been overpriced; they need to come down,” said Glenn Scott-Wright, director at London’s Victoria Miro gallery, who attended the sale. “If Christie’s had dropped the reserves by 20 percent, it would have done better.”

Read the full story from Bloomberg HERE

“Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio” by Lucio Fontana, an oil and glitter on canvas work executed in 1963, was expected to fetch at least 12 million pounds ($21.8 million) during the Christie’s “Post-War and Contemporary Art” auction in London on Oct. 19. Source: Christie’s Images Ltd. via Bloomberg News

It was not to be. Read more HERE

Science, the company behind Damien Hirst’s artistic production, marketing and publicity, is ranked number one in the seventh edition of ArtReview’s Power 100, distributed in the November 2008 issue of the contemporary art magazine.

British Mega-Artist Damien Hirst. Image: espacioblog.com

In a year that began with the setting of new auction records for contemporary art and ended in global financial crisis, Hirst overshadowed and outshone, becoming the first artist to bring his work directly to auction (at Sotheby’s London in September), and grossing £111 million in the process.

The top 10 also includes Kathy Halbreich, the first woman to appear on her own in the top 10. Ranked third, behind Hirst and gallerist Larry Gagosian, she is the newly appointed Associate Director of MoMA, New York, and the first of 32 women on this year’s ranking of art world players in a list traditionally dominated by men.

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The Canada Council for the Arts announced today that the Beaverbrook Art Gallery is the recipient of the 2008 York Wilson Endowment Award, an award given annually to an art museum or public gallery to assist with the purchase of a single work by a Canadian artist.

Graeme Patterson, The Barn, 2004-2006. Image: canadacouncil.ca/courtesy Graeme Patterson

The Gallery will use the $20,000 award to purchase The Barn, including the animation Romancing the Farm, by 28 year-old Halifax-based artist Graeme Patterson.

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Since Damien Hirst made a killing in his Sotheby’s sale on the day that the US market dropped, there has been almost universal puzzlement over the future of the contemporary art market. Below are some conflicting headlines about the art market from the past few days - demonstrating that no one really knows what’s going on.

Image: boston.com

The Art Newspaper says:

Sign of things to come? New York art market shows evidence of weakness

HERE

From the Taipei Times:

At times of financial insecurity, art can be a surprising source of investor confidence

HERE

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Damien Hirst, The Explosion - Exalted, 2006. Image: ionarts.blogspot.com

VoCA loves reading FT art critic Jackie Wullschlager’s take on things. Here’s her take on Damien Hirst’s sale at Sotheby’s in London, which happens today.

“Warhol..and Jeff Koons…were prophets of this collusion, but (Damien Hirst’s upcoming Sotheby’s sale) “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” is its apogee. It does not matter what sells or flops.

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At this point, everything Mr. Hirst does is worth taking note of by art world observers.

Damien Hirst, the ultimate Art Star. Image: artdaily.com

His latest endeavors, from the Pharmacy bar/restaurant in London’s Notting Hill that closed with an auction of its contents to his now infamous diamond-studded skull that he, along with a group of investors purchased from his own gallery for 75 million Euros, have shocked the art world by aggressively pushing at its limits.

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