News

Sales of Modern of Contemporary paintings in London between February 5 and 8 2007 were flooded with spectacular bids marking a rare appetite by amateurs for exceptional works.

René Magritte “Married Priest” of 1961 went for 5,28 million sterling, the second best price for the artist, at Christie's on February 6th while at Phillips the same day “Mask Series Number 6, 1997”, a rather akward work by Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi sold for 232 000 sterling.

On February 5th, Sotheby's recorded a turnover of 122 million sterling during its sale of Impressionnist and Modern paintings with works by Soutine, Munch, Dufy and Vlaminck reaching the summits. The next day, Christie's recorded 89,7 million sterling despite enormous estimates, which were likely to drive buyers away. In fact, this did not happen in many cases.

These sales were impacted by the presence of new buyers, from the U.S, China, Japan and mainly Russia, who were quite active during biddings. Such new race of consumers has in fact replaced the traditional collectors. Money is therefore no longer a taboo or better coined a shame in the usual purchase process leading to collecting, art objects and paintings that are now considered as equivalent to any consuming good.

Therefore, prices are pushed to their highest levels simply because fashion is regarded as expensive. As a result, some artists, like Canadian-born Peter Doig whose “White canoe” painting went for 5,732 million sterling (five times its estimate) at Sotheby's, are becoming the new stars of a buoyant market full of surprises though under the control of a few collectors and dealers, like the Saatchi brothers whose influence is enormous. Now, Doig is as much expensive as many famous Impressionist masters like Degas and others.

There is apparently no limit to the present craze, except a major economic crisis, which would make things quite difficult on the market. However, there is no sign of a respite at the moment meaning that demand is to remain much strong during the first half of 2007.