New York’s art splurge
The Great Wealth Transfer
| by Georgina Adam |
Illustration by Katherine Hardy
For as long as I have been covering the art market, I have heard over and over a single complaint: “the big problem is supply.”
Auctioneers, agents, dealers, all had the same moan—if they can get the good works of art, they can sell them. Or as they complained between themselves: “You just can’t get the kit.”
Well, they may have to find something else to grumble about, because looking at this month’s New York sales reveals a flourishing pipeline.
Much has already been written about the Great Wealth Transfer with sometimes preposterous figures (for example, $84trn) put on the amount of money that will fall on Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1980) and millennials (1981-2006) as the Baby Boomers (1946-1964) pass away and pass on their fortunes in cash, real estate and...art.
For the art, we are seeing this play out all the time. Last year in the November sales, the Paul Allen auction racked up the highest total ever for a single owner collection: a stunning $1.5bn. The Cox and Bass estates also scored well last year.
And this is continuing. More collections coming from boomers hit the block this month: Christie’s has works from the holdings of the controversial real estate mogul Gerald Fineberg, more from Paul Allen, 16 works from the S.I. Newhouse estate, as well as the Press and Cohenca collections.
Sotheby’s features a stand-alone auction from the music executive Mo Ostin, while Phillips has works from Rosa and Aaron Esman. And there are also individual sales resulting from collectors’ deaths, for instance the Douannier Rousseau at Christie’s from the estate of Payne Whitney Middleton (est. $20m-$30m).
Adding to the flow, along with estate sales there is also restitution. On 16 May Sotheby’s is selling three works returned from the Musee d’Orsay to the heirs of the famed dealer Ambroise Vollard—by Renoir, Cézanne and Gauguin. And the heirs are claiming other works in the Orsay, which presumably will also come on the market one day.
Then there is deaccessioning. Sotheby’s 16 May sale features Edward Hopper’s major oil painting, Cobb's Barns, South Truro, estimated at $8m-$12m and sent for sale by the Whitney Museum of American Art, along with seven other works. A Brazilian foundation is selling Louise Bourgeois’s Spider (1966, est. $30m-$40m), also at Sotheby’s.
Another potential museum sell-off is from Valparaiso University’s Brauer Museum of Art, with a Georgia O’Keeffe, a Frederic E. Church and a Childe Hassam earmarked for disposal. However, this will depend on the outcome of a lawsuit opposing the sale, filed by the gallery’s founding director Richard Brauer.
Adding up all the totals in New York’s coming marquee splurge, you come to an eye-popping figure of $1.5bn to $2.3bn, just taking the low to high pre-sale estimates for Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips.
How will this actually play out on the nights? All the artists cited above are of another generation, and I wonder if newer buyers will find them as relevant as their parents and grandparents did. We shall find out over the next two weeks.