With the latest auctions in London, the art market season is coming to an end. The traditional Classic Week in July, which includes sales of historical works from antiquity to the 19th century, has left results with a bittersweet taste. On paper, much stronger than in recent years: The Big Two's old master evening sales alone brought in £77.2m (without commissions), that's 168% more than last summer, according to a report by ArtTactic. The effort of professionals to revitalize the old masters seems to be yielding some positive results despite the fact that impeccably preserved extraordinary works are difficult to come out of.
If we look at it in detail, at Sotheby's, the 49 lots fetched 39.4 million pounds, the highest total in an auction of this type since 2019. But we could also appreciate that 35% of the lots did not find a buyer. A very high percentage that had to do with the few attractive works that are offered. Once again, the strongest prices were for those few outstanding paintings, confirming how selective this market has become.
In the words of Alex Bell, head of old masters at Sotheby's, "buyers in this segment don't really see these works as investment objects." Gallerist Marco Voena, from Robilant Voena, added that “classic buyers have completely disappeared. Either it is a museum work or the market shows little interest”, confirming the earthquake that has caused a change in the tastes of collectors, who have abandoned more historical art.
This season has been very complex, marked by the uncertainty of whether the market was going into recession. The figures that ArtTactic has just published are clear: the global auction market for the first half of this year of Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips is down 18% compared to the first half of 2022, from 7.100 to 5.800 million dollars, which would confirm the signs of a cooling. However, it seems more like a corrective than a crisis, since these results are in line with those of 2021 and are significantly higher than the pre-pandemic ones. Not at all does one have the feeling that this market is in free fall.
