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ART

Christie's Hong Kong

London Falling

News and notes on the art market’s quiet deprecation of London as the big auction houses set up shop in Hong Kong, resize their ambitions in Asia, and attempt to rewrite the auction calendar.
Marion Maneker • May 28, 2024
Marion Maneker • May 26, 2024
The Gagosian Succession Sweepstakes
Larry Gagosian
The hiring of Brooke Lampley has raised eyebrows in the art world. Is Gagosian, now in his late 70s, looking to sell or put a succession plan in place? Or is this just a mirage, with the hard-charging micromanager selling to the very end, like Castelli?
Marion Maneker • May 21, 2024
Warhol, Basquiat & A $1.4 Billion Question
Christies Global Head of Private Sales Adrien Meyer sells the top lot of the evening Andy Warhol's Flowers
Exactly how rich are the rich feeling these days? Data from the May sales suggest some reasons to be cheerful—$35 million for Warhol, $28 million for Leonora Carrington, $22 million for Joan Mitchell—despite a 50 percent drop in auction house sales.
pablo picasso
Marion Maneker • May 19, 2024
A $35 Million Monet, Picasso Weakness & Gigaweek Anxieties
Selling art isn’t easy, and it’s a lot harder in a market that appears to be declining. A look back at a week of hard work as the auction houses tried to sell the art they had well while also cultivating growth for a future market.
Joan Mitchell "Ground" sotheby's art auction
Marion Maneker • May 14, 2024
Sotheby’s Case of the Mondays
On Monday night, Sotheby’s posted a strong $267 million sale, up 30 percent year over year, including a record price for Joan Mitchell’s ‘Noon.’ So why did it all seem so depressing?
Frieze New York art fair
Marion Maneker • May 12, 2024
Tenth-Avenue Frieze Out
News and notes on all the shows around New York, what everyone is saying, and not saying, too.
claude monet art auction
Marion Maneker • May 7, 2024
A $364m Auction Backstop & The Irrevocable Bid Dance
Amid this unpredictable art market, nearly a quarter of the work coming to auction has already been guaranteed by third-party bidders. Is that a feat of financial engineering or a sign of the state of the confidence game?
Sotheby's Andy Warhol Jean-Michel Basquiat "Untitled"
Marion Maneker • May 5, 2024
The $1.2 Billion Art Fantasy
As gigaweek begins in New York, the big auction houses are fantasizing about more than a billion in sales—down from last year, sure, but also not terrible for a year without a signature artist or collection in the spotlight.
Inigo Philbrick
Marion Maneker • April 30, 2024
Inigo Time
News, notes, and fresh reporting on Inigo Philbrick’s attempt to rehabilitate himself and get back in the game after his $86 million fraud.
Pierre Bonnard painting art museum
Marion Maneker • April 28, 2024
Big in D.C. & A Boesky Discovery
News and notes on the Phillips Collection’s huge Bonnard show, and Boesky’s just-closed exhibit of a very, very new painter.
Hans Neuendorf
Marion Maneker • April 23, 2024
Artnet & The Price of Everything
Before Artnet, dealers and auction houses had a stranglehold on information. Then came Hans Neuendorf… and nothing has been the same since.
Patrick Drahi
Marion Maneker • April 23, 2024
The Sotheby’s Debt Soap Opera
Facing a mountain of debt both on his private auction house and public company, Altice, Sotheby’s owner Patrick Drahi is implementing a neat little trick to maximize revenue without increasing sales. Will it work? His competition isn’t sure yet…
joan mitchell Claude Monet paintings
Marion Maneker • April 23, 2024
Three Women
A stagnant May auction season in New York just got a major jolt via six works by O’Keeffe, Carrington, and Mitchell, with combined low estimates of nearly $60 million.
sotheby's auction gustav klimt
Marion Maneker • April 23, 2024
Art Market Shocks & Leon Black’s Math
The business of art, often misunderstood in the media, is a mysterious alchemy of ego, economic cycles, and a genuine passion for the sublime. But explaining the unexplainable is why I joined Puck.
Dmitry Rybolovlev, the billionaire Russian fertilizer mogul.
Eriq Gardner • December 4, 2023
Did Russia’s Fertilizer King Overpay for His Da Vinci?
An explosive legal battle between billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, a scheming Swiss art dealer, and the auction house Sotheby’s threatens to expose some of the industry’s dirtiest secrets.
Alvin Bragg’s efforts have resulted in several museums parting with their Schieles.
Eriq Gardner • November 6, 2023
The Art World’s Russian Prisoner Dilemma
A fight over a century-old portrait, which ended up in Chicago after being uprooted by the Nazis, has the potential to reshape the landscape of art ownership disputes and even draw in the Biden administration.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg obtained search warrants allowing for the seizure of three artworks by the late Austrian artist, Egon Schiele.
William D. Cohan • September 27, 2023
Morgenthau, Bragg & A Manhattan Nazi Art Heist Saga
Nearly a century after a trove of Egon Schiele masterworks were stolen by the Nazis, District Attorney Alvin Bragg has seized them back. The story of their loss, and recovery, may be the most important development in the world of art restitution in a generation.
Andy Warhol
Eriq Gardner • March 21, 2022
The Andy Warhol Legal Diaries
Will the Supreme Court save the $1.7 trillion art market? Some in the art world are worried that a copyright ruling last year could make it unlawful to derive recognizable inspiration from something else.