Auction House Ups and Downs - Christire's International PLC, Sotheby's Inc - Brief Article

Art in America, May, 2001 by David Ebony

Over the past month, there were both dramatic successes and serious setbacks in the topsy-turvy world of fine-art auctions. Just as the major houses, Christie's and Sotheby's, had reached a conditional settlement in the class-action lawsuit stemming from price-fixing allegations, Manhattan federal judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who is hearing the case, issued an opinion in late March that threatened to derail the hard-fought resolution [see "Artworld," Apr. '01]. At issue is whether or not the settlement should allow for customers to sue in the U.S. for transactions that occurred in the companies' overseas auction rooms. Presently, the settlement agreement applies only to sales that took place in the U.S. As we go to press, Judge Kaplan has requested that the lawyers involved in the case clarify these issues or else risk jeopardizing the settlement.

Meanwhile, each company has announced its sales totals for 2000. Christie's enjoyed a record-breaking year, selling $2.32 billion worth of goods, including 250 lots for over $1 million each. About half of Christie's total, the highest in the company's 234-year history, was realized in the U.S. Totals were up by double-digit percentage points in nearly every field. One of the most spectacular increases was in Asian art, which rose 45 percent. Continuing the boom in Asian art this year, Christie's, at its Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art auction on Mar. 20, sold a large, late Shang bronze ritual wine jar, Fanglei (ca. 1100 B.C.), for $9.25 million to a private collector. Far above the $3-4-million unpublished estimate, the price is the highest ever paid for a work of Asian art at auction.

Nevertheless, in the wake of fines and legal fees related to the price-fixing probe, Christie's is proceeding with a number of serious belt-tightening measures. Some staff cuts have already been enacted, and there are plans to consolidate its various New York facilities into its Rockefeller Center headquarters. The company recently sold its East 59th Street building, used for private auctions, and now plans to sell its East 67th Street facility by the end of the year. Expected to bring about $20 million, the building is now home to Christie's East, which specializes in lower-priced offerings; these sales will be conducted next year at Rockefeller Center.

News from Sotheby's during the past month was also mixed. Its sales totals of $1.94 billion for 2000 represented an overall 14 percent decrease compared with the previous year. The company cited the lack of important single-owner auctions as the principal cause for the decline. Almost every department reported lower sales, with the exception of Asian art, which enjoyed a 19-percent increase over 1999. The company also reported a loss of some $45 million at its on-line auction site, sothebys.com, in spite of its having pulled in around $53 million in on-line sales. The company is also consolidating its offices, moving five of its various Manhattan operations into the York Avenue headquarters.

Farther afield, the outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease in England has also negatively impacted Sotheby's. The highly anticipated sale of the Leverhulme Collection of fine art and antiques, which the auction house was to have conducted this month at the late Viscount Leverhulme's estate, Thorton Manor, at Wirral, Merseyside, has been postponed until the end of June, provided there is no countryside quarantine in the area at that time.

All the major auction houses, however, are looking forward to the big spring sales in New York this month. Each has snagged some major goodies to offer their well-heeled clients. The buzz at Christie's surrounds a large Picasso portrait of his first wife, Olga Koklova (1923), which remained in the artist's collection until his death in 1973. A major work of his classical period and rarely shown in public, the painting is expected to bring some $30 million. Early this month, Sotheby's will auction important works of modern and contemporary art assembled over the past 45 years by collector Stanley J. Seeger. Estimated to sell for $32-40 million, the lots include key pieces by Picasso, Braque, Miro, Schiele, Bacon, Calder and Johns, among others.

Perhaps the biggest catch this season was landed by Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg (formerly Phillips). The auction house will offer seven well-known works of Post-Impressionist art assembled by the German dealer/collector Heinz Berggruen. These major pieces--five Cezanne paintings (including an important study of Mont Sainte-Victoire) and two van Gogh works--are dated a bit too early to be included with the works by modernist masters that were recently acquired by the City of Berlin, and are now on display in Berggruen's namesake museum there [see "Artworld," Feb. '01]. A successful sale of the works, expected to bring in excess of $80 million, will put Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg firmly on the map as major players in the high-stakes auction game.