Poor auction performance in all categories from contemporary to period, art and antiques dealers shutting down right and left, and those few surviving dealers that can still afford to do shows, finding their show participation more of an exercise in giving their stock in trade a weekend outing- rather than finding their gear a good, permanent home.
Of course, some of the blame for this must rest with the money that isn’t there anymore that a year ago might have been spent on art and antiques. As well, those that do still have change to jingle in their pockets are psychologically precluded from spending it on much of anything, apparently. So much of our business, and everyone else’s, is dependent on perception of wealth. The very rich tend to read the newspapers, watch television, and browse the internet and they, too, see reports on ‘toxic assets’ (I would like to shoot the pundit who first coined that moronic phrase), and, as a consequence, no matter how much of the ready they may have, no matter how strongly their own portfolio has fared, their perception is that they are not as wealthy as they might formerly have been. The final consequence is that money is kept in the bank, rather than in the circulation that would result in the purchase of a painting- or a new car, a dishwasher, or an electric can opener for that matter.
With all that, in spite of what Eli Broad said about Sotheby’s recent contemporary auctions as a ‘half-price sale’, the same cannot be said about Georgian antiques. If there are any significant auction bargains in period furniture, I haven’t seen them. Ordinary furniture, perhaps, but why- ever- buy ordinary? This brings me, finally, to what I want to say about the notion of market meltdown, at least in the art and antiques market. What constitutes meltdown, anyway? Over the course of the last two years, the market for contemporary art, for instance, has skyrocketed. Fad or fashion? Or, manipulated? For contemporary material that has not established itself in the art historical canon, investment in contemporary art has to be at best something of a crap shoot. Who can say how well this material will weather changes in taste? One presumes, then, that the price escalation so much of this material has experienced in the last couple of years has had at least something to do with its promotion by tastemakers, and those who sought to be. The salesrooms, with the huge guarantees they offered consignors, sought to be, if not taste, then market makers. At the end of the day, though, someone must buy the material and, regardless of general economic conditions, everything has an upper price limit. Let’s plan to revisit Basquiat, Bacon, and Hirst material in ten years time, shall we?, and we’ll see if some of the hot names might not have become the 21st century equivalent of that most popular of late 19th century artists, Luke Fildes. ‘Luke who?’ you ask. My point exactly.
To be fair, canonical material has struggled, too. Witness the sale at Christie’s of the remaining stock of venerable dealers in 18th century antiques Hotspur and Jeremy. Against a low estimate of £4 million, the sale achieved only £3.6 million, and most of that to private buyers. The Antiques Trade Gazette was spot on when it noted that the trade shied away from the material because it was too expensive- not more money than anyone could spend, but just flatly more than the material was worth. The private buyer, who makes the occasional purchase, might be willing to overpay, but the trade buyer can’t and expect to stay in business. And, well, Hotspur and Jeremy overpaid for quite a bit of this material, and, clearly, they haven’t been able to stay in business. Most of what was at Christie’s was acquired by these dealers in the last couple of years, and was sold at the recent sale for less than the price formerly paid. One can only imagine what these dealer’s retail prices must have been. The upper price limit had been reached, but, unfortunately for Hotspur and Jeremy, they had themselves established that upper price limit a couple of year’s ago in the Christie’s and Sotheby’s salesrooms.