By BLOOMBERG
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol was the top selling artist at auction in the past year as increased competition for the most expensive segment of the market drove global art sales higher.
Collectors bought 1,295 works by the deceased artist totalling US$653.2 million (RM2.3 billion), ahead of sales for Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon, according to preliminary figures by New York-based researcher Artnet. Auctions worldwide rose 10% to US$16 billion (RM56 billion).
Art sales have more than doubled from US$6.3 billion in 2009, as surging financial markets lifted the fortunes of the world’s richest.
The top 400 billionaires added US$92 billion in wealth this year, for a net worth of US$4.1 trillion as at Dec 29, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bidding for the most coveted artists has been driving much of the surge in auctions, said Jeff Rabin, a principal at advisory firm Artvest Partners in New York.
“The headline number is not so much a comment on the art market as it is on global wealth,” Rabin said. “We haven’t seen a considerable increase in the number of objects sold. We have seen price appreciation at the top end.”
A record US$2.3 billion of art was auctioned over two weeks in New York in November. As part of those auctions, Christie’s on Nov 12 sold 75 contemporary works for US$852.9 million, a record for an evening auction.
“That total in one evening sale for less than 100 works is extraordinary,” Rabin said.
Warhol
At US$16 billion, this year’s art sales would be the second highest on record.
The Artnet numbers for 2014 are preliminary, whereby the final figures next week could still surpass the previous record of US$16.3 billion, set in 2011.
The figures take into account sales of paintings, drawings, and sculpture but not other collectibles such as furniture or decorative objects. The numbers also don’t include private sales.
No women artists were among the top 10 artists in 2014, where only one, Gerhard Richter, 82, is still living.
Warhol, who died in 1987, had two of the most expensive works at auction in 2014. ‘Triple Elvis’, a 1963 silkscreen of Elvis Presley in a publicity image for the movie ‘Flaming Star’ in which the singer is shown as a cowboy with a gun, sold for US$81.9 million.
‘Four Marlons’, a 1966 canvas depicting four identical images of a young Marlon Brando wearing a leather jacket and a cap in a still from the movie ‘The Wild One’, fetched US$69.6 million.
Both works were sold in November at Christie’s in New York.
Chinese artists
Picasso was the second biggest selling artist, with 2,820 of his works fetching US$448.7 million. Although he didn’t have an individual work among the top sellers, collectors sought out the artist because he had “an incredible body of work and multiple periods of exceptional work,” Rabin said.
Bacon, Richter, and Mark Rothko rounded out the top five artists.
Two Chinese artists, Qi Baishi, known for painting shrimp, fish, and frogs, and Zhang Daqian, who was famous for his landscapes, ranked sixth and ninth, respectively.
Claude Monet was seventh, with US$252.1 million of his works sold. Jean-Michel Basquiat was 10th, at US$172.2 million.
Alberto Giacometti’s Chariot sculpture of a painted bronze figure on wheels ranked as the most expensive work at auction this year, when it sold for US$101 million in November at Sotheby’s in New York.
The artist, who died in 1966, ranked eighth among the top 10 artists with 140 of his works selling for US$235.2 million.
‘Black Fire’
Although they didn’t rank among the top 10 artists, Cy Twombly, Barnett Newman, and Edouard Manet took spots among the top sales.
After Giacometti’s sculpture, Newman’s Black Fire I, a canvas of vertical blocks of black and beige, was the second most expensive sale at US$84.2 million at Christie’s in May.
A rare 1970 painting of white concentric loops on a gray background by Twombly set an auction record for the artist in November at Christie’s, fetching US$69.6 million.
Manet’s Le Printemps, a portrait of a woman with a parasol, was purchased by the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for US$65.1 million at Christie’s on Nov 5.
Bacon, Rothko, and Amedeo Modigliani also had works among the top 10 sales of 2014.
An untitled abstract painting by Joan Mitchell sold for US$11.9 million at Christie’s in New York in May, setting an auction record for a woman artist.
Georgia O’Keeffe broke that record six months later, when her painting ‘Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1’ sold for US$44.4 million at Sotheby’s on Nov 20.
— By Mary Romano & Maryann Busso
You must be logged in to post a comment.