…and both Christies and Sotheby’s reflect huge decreases in revenue, Sotheby’s by half over the same period last year, while Christies would have declined almost identically if one were to exclude the successful Yves St-Laurent sale. Privately held Christies doesn’t release profit figures, but it can’t have been any further in the black, or to put it more appropriately, any less in the red, than its major competitor. Enormous staffing reductions, and an increased workload undertaken by those staff remaining, have allowed both salesrooms to hemorrhage a little less money. As I write this, Sotheby’s is trading at $16, about half its value of a year ago, but up significantly from its 52 week low of $6.47 realized in early March of this year.
Although it is the performance at auction of English antiques that is my primary focus, for the salesrooms it is Impressionist and 20th century art that has been its mainstay. In spite of reduced revenue, the last year has elicited some bright spots- the aforementioned St Laurent sale being arguably the brightest- but, frankly, not much good material has flowed through the salesrooms. No surprise, of course, given that neither Christies or Sotheby’s have been offering any sorts of inducements, by way of either advances or guarantees, to winkle out prize consignments. And, of course, those who do not have to sell their better pieces are disinclined to do so in a world-wide recession wherein achieving top dollar is chancy at best.
With all that, the demand for the material that Christies and Sotheby’s markets has not evaporated completely. Mind you, this is not to ignore the bloodbath amongst art and antiques dealers that began a couple of years ago does not yet show signs of abating. The wisdom of what Sotheby’s and Christies sought to do, becoming a retail marketplace for the material that was formerly and almost exclusively the province of the antiques and fine arts dealer, is now an open question. That their efforts have contributed to the trade now being only a shadow of its former self, can the revenues and profits of the big salesrooms recover to anything like the levels they enjoyed prior to 2008.