London Auctions Show Contemporary Art Prices May Be Stalling 2006-10-16 05:28 (New York) By Linda Sandler Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Prices for contemporary art may be stalling as Sotheby's and Christie's international gear up for some $400 million of such sales in New York. At London weekend auctions, Neo Rauch and other fashionable young German artists went unsold while Chinese painters Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang sometimes sold near low valuations, as did a Damien Hirst spot painting. Established artists Martin Kippenberger and Bill Viola sold below their low estimates. The sales showed buyers are starting to balk at the prices demanded by sellers. Since 1995, contemporary values have tripled, and some artists have made tenfold gains in two years. ``I don't think the market can keep going up,'' billionaire Eli Broad said in an interview last week after buying Jeff Koons's ``Cracked Egg'' sculpture in London for about $3.5 million. ``In the U.S., we see real estate not going up -- houses are selling at lower prices. You can't have anything going up 10 percent to 20 percent to 30 percent indefinitely.'' London auction rooms filled with 500 to 1,500 people this weekend, from dealers Larry Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch to publishers Benedict Taschen and Louise MacBain. At Christie's, where many estimates were low, Zhang's family trio fetched a hammer price of 680,000 pounds ($1.3 million), or 1.8 times its top valuation. A Tom Wesselmann nude went for a record 1.3 million pounds, more than twice its high estimate. Most nudes fared well. D.J. Auctioneering The London sales, which continue this week, aim to raise as much as $147 million. They're part of a series of contemporary fairs and auctions that may take in about $800 million by year- end, according to published numbers and estimates by fair organizers. The Frieze Art Fair ended yesterday. Phillips de Pury & Co.'s Saturday sale used live music and D.J.-style auctioneering to draw more than 1,500 people to a former post-office building near Victoria Station. The art, about a quarter guaranteed, reached its $16 million top estimate only after adding commissions. ``A lot of people are interested in contemporary art, but there's a small circle of players,'' said New York dealer Deitch. His 500,000 pound bid won a 1998 Piotr Uklanski photograph, ``The Nazis,'' whose top estimate was 350,000 pounds, and he bought a Maurizio Cattelan photo too. Among the guaranteed lots, Kippenberger's 1984 ``Frau mit Viel Zeit,'' an oil painting of a woman on a pier, took a hammer price of 380,000 pounds, missing its 400,000 pound low valuation. Viola's ``Eternal Return,'' a 2000 video work with a low estimate of 350,000 pounds, sold to a telephone bidder for a hammer price of 330,000 pounds. Guarantors' Risk Guarantors, including Phillips and outside investors, promised minimum prices to sellers of 17 lots. A guarantor may make little money, or lose some, when the hammer price is below the low estimate. That happened to at least five Phillips lots, though other guaranteed works did well. The 7 p.m. sale stretched about two hours, and auctioneer Simon de Pury competed with a roar of talk as guests waited for the bar to open and the Human League rock group to perform. At Sotheby's Friday night sale on New Bond Street, Hirst's 2006 spot painting was valued at as much as 600,000 pounds. It sold for 450,000 pounds. Next evening, a seller withdrew a grid of colored dots from a second Sotheby's sale. Spot paintings by Hirst, a member of the Sunday Times Rich List, fared better at Phillips and Christie's, where top estimates were lower. Christie's had a 2006 spots picture for 200,000 pounds. A telephone bidder paid a hammer price of 380,000 pounds. Hammer prices are useful for comparing results with presale valuations. Auction houses often beat their estimates only after adding their commission of 20 percent on the first 100,000 pounds of the hammer price and 12 percent on the rest. Earlier this month, Sotheby's withdrew three prints of Hirst spots from a sale. The sellers worried they might not be authentic, said Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby's European contemporary art chief. Leipzig Stars At Sotheby's 5 p.m. Saturday sale, Leipzig painters Rauch and Matthias Weischer, previously in demand from London to Miami, went unsold as auctioneer Tobias Meyer ran through 46 lots in less than an hour. Weischer, born in 1973 and priced as low as 30,000 pounds a couple of years ago, had a top estimate of 300,000 pounds, and Rauch, 250,000 pounds. Lower-priced works by Dirk Skreber and Eberhard Havekost didn't sell either, and a Wilhelm Sasnal went below the 40,000 pound low valuation. ``I don't buy Germans at high prices,'' said Victor Pires- Vieira, a Portuguese dealer whose 160,000 pound bid won an Antony Gormley work at Sotheby's. ``I have to protect myself and my clients.'' ``We pushed the German estimates,'' said Westphal. At Christie's yesterday, Pires-Vieira paid a hammer price of 40,000 pounds for a Havekost work, whose low estimate was 60,000 pounds, and 80,000 pounds for a Martin Eder painting, or twice the top estimate. Sotheby's contemporary sale totaled almost 10 million pounds, including commission, beating its high estimate with help from Andy Warhol. Andy's `Scream' London jeweler Laurence Graff paid almost 1.1 million pounds for ``The Scream,'' Warhol's rendering of Edvard Munch's painting, a little more than its top estimate. Warhol's ``Vesuvius'' went to another buyer for the same amount, which was 43 percent above its high estimate Graff, who is expanding his Warhol collection and his diamond holdings, lost the same artist's ``Portrait of Man Ray'' to a telephone bidder who paid more than twice the high valuation. New York dealer Gagosian, who ranks high in lists of the art world's most powerful people, bought a Warhol gun picture for a hammer price of 130,000 pounds -- a discount to its low estimate of 150,000 pounds. This week, Sotheby's and Christie's sell more 20th century art, including by Italian artists. --Editors: Ruane (rev). Story illustration: To see the auction calendars, go to http://www.christies.com, http://search.sothebys.com and http://www.phillipsdepury.com. To see art-price indexes from Art Market Research, click {ALLX ARTQ }. For more Bloomberg art news, type {MUSE }. To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in London at (44) (20) 7673-2317 or lsandler@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Ruane in Brussels at (32) (2) 285-4309 or jruane1@bloomberg.net. [TAGINFO] BID US CN CHRS LN CN NI MUSE NI EUROPE NI CULTURE NI ART NI COLLECT NI US NI AUCTION NI PW NI GEN NI UK NI LONDON NI FIN NI SPEND NI WNEWS NI GER NI CHINA #<661724.1606649.1.0.7.4.25># -0- Oct/16/2006 09:28 GMT