If QE never existed and bailouts had never taken place the art world we see today with auctions breaking records every time there is one wouldn't exist, but of course the fools don't comprehend this. Sculpture expected to break record, sell for $100M Robert Frank | @robtfrank Monday, 3 Nov 2014 | 1:36 PM ETCNBC.com 1.7K SHARES 476 COMMENTSSotheby's. With an estimated worth of more than $100 million, many dealers said it could become the most expensive sculpture ever sold and could help pull the increasingly top-heavy art market through another record-breaking auction season. "This could easily set the record," said Andrew Fabricant, director of the Richard Gray Gallery. "It's top quality, and it's extremely rare." Suzanne Plunkett | Reuters A visitor looks at "Chariot" by Alberto Giacometti at Sotheby's auction house in London, October 10, 2014. To break the record for a sculpture, the work would have to top the price of a previous Giacometti. His 6-foot-tall "Walking Man I" piece, which portrays a lanky man in stride, fetched $104.3 million at a Sotheby's sale in London in 2010. Read MoreExtravagant purchases of filthy rich celebrities "Chariot," however, may be even more coveted. Many art historians consider it to be Giacometti's masterpiece, and one of the seminal works of modern art. Giacometti made only six "Chariots," and only two remain in private hands. The one Sotheby's is selling had been with the same collector for more than 40 years, making it even more valuable. A lot is riding on those two spindly wheels. As the first of the major fall auctions, Tuesday's sale is expected to set the tone for the auctions of more than $1.5 billion worth of art over the next two weeks. If the sale of "Chariot" hits any kind of bump, the remaining sales may not be as strong. The spring auctions were strong, but the global economy has weakened substantially since then, especially in China, Russia and Latin America. Newly rich collectors from emerging markets have been fueling much of the bidding at the top of the market, and slower wealth creation could lead to less heated bidding. At the same time, financial markets have become more volatile, leading to less investing confidence among the very wealthy. Dealers and art experts say the post-war and contemporary market, supported by Warhols, Basquiats, Lichtensteins and Rothkos, is especially fragile given the huge run-up in prices in recent years. Dealers also said this year's sales are flooded with works for sale. "A potential crisis looms in the contemporary art market when the evening sale catalog for Christie's vastly exceeds the size of a Gutenberg Bible," Fabricant said. The sales are especially heavy on works by Andy Warhol, with Christie's and Sotheby's offering up 19 of his paintings. Gallerists said the lots, which include portraits of Elvis, Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando, could top $300 million. Sotheby's and Christie's are also both selling major Mark Rothko paintings. Christie's is selling two from the estate of Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, the widow of philanthropist Paul Mellon. Sotheby's is selling a Rothko, titled "No. 21 (Red, Brown, Black and Orange)," which could top $50 million.
Another record breaking auction ....QE has set off unbelievable amounts of money into the system. Art is guaranteed free money to now http://www.cnbc.com/id/102159974
There is so much money sloshing around at the top they don't mind paying big prices. There was a fire in one celebrity's warehouse of expensive art recently in London. Cost the insurers a ton of money for over priced rubbish. Very convenient. But if you had a spare billion + what would you spend it on ? Rockets to space a la Branson, Musk etc. ?
Another day another record...ha im not talking about the historical highs on the S$P im talking about another record auction for art...an O'Keeffe sold for $44 million ...3x more than they thought it was worth.....there is no bubble in the art world though because someone will by this at auction in a few more years for $62 million..... As long as this market goes up every other asset class will go up with it...again lets thank BUBBLE ben bernanke for all that trillions worth of QE or all of what you are seeing today would not be possible ...if QE didn't exist this O'Keeffe painting would have never went to auction....again thank BUBBLE ben bernanke for these record breaking auctions... NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — A simple Georgia O’Keeffe painting has been auctioned off at a record-shattering price.The painting of a white flower sold Thursday for $44.4 million, more than triple the previous auction record for a work by a female artist.Sotheby’s New York says the 1932 painting, “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1,” was purchased during the auction house’s sale of American art.The painting was sold by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to benefit its acquisitions fund. Sotheby’s is not disclosing the identity of the buyer, a telephone bidder.The previous world auction record for any work by a female artist was $11.9 million. That was the price for Joan Mitchell’s “Untitled” at Christie’s New York in May.The previous auction record for an O’Keeffe work was $6.2 million, set at Christie’s New York in 2001.
Well a Giacometti is a Giacometti. But atleast for contemporary art the bubble bursted already a few years a go already. People were paying hundereds of thousands for Damien Hirst dot paintings up to 2008. Nowadays they often even fail at auction. http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/damien-hirst-end-of-money-as-pure-art-14950053
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Christie's held the biggest art auction in history on Wednesday, selling $853 million worth of contemporary and post-war art, led by a pair of Andy Warhol works featuring multiple images of Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando.The impressive haul beat Christie's high pre-sale estimate of $836 million. It was the fourth successive time since May 2013 that the auction house's post-war and contemporary sale broke the record for the highest-ever total of a single sale. Christie's had set the record for the biggest auction total in history in May, when its contemporary sale hauled in $745 million, but Wednesday's record quelled any doubts whether the art market's top-tier bubble might soon burst. The two weeks of sales at Christie's and Sotheby's took in a total of some $2 billion. http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0IX09P20141114?irpc=932
Manet canvas sets record at Christie's $166-million sale of Impressionist art ENLARGE(Globalpost/GlobalPost)By Chris MichaudNEW YORK (Reuters) - A celebrated 1881 portrait by French Impressionist Edouard Manet on Wednesday smashed the record for the artist when it sold for $65.1 million at Christie's, going far towards the auction house's solid total takings of $165.6 million."Le Printemps," an oil painting owned by the same family for a century, had been estimated to sell for as much as $35 million, but half a dozen bidders competing for the work, most of them via telephone, helped drive up the price.The sale, including Christie's commission of just over 12 percent, nearly doubled the previous record of $33.2 million for a Manet, set in 2010 by "Self Portrait with a Palette." The auction was a far more modest affair than Tuesday's record sale at rival Sotheby's, which saw the highest auction total in its 270-year history, but managed to beat even the high pre-sale estimate of $157 million. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/...record-at-christies-166-million-sale-impressi