The Art Market Revisited

Sotheby's may have been smart to slim down its spring sale of impressionist and modern art. (See Jim Gust's earlier post.)

Bloomberg reports:

Sotheby's 52-lot auction totaled $235.3 million, inside its estimated range of $203.9 million to $280.1 million. The 58 works Christie's offered on Tuesday raised $277.3 million.

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Sotheby's average price per lot was $5.7 million, up from $3.5 million in November, even after U.S. stocks suffered their biggest drop in almost a month yesterday. Sotheby's said Americans bought more than two-thirds of the lots, a reversal of the Christie's sale, when U.S. buyers took home only a third.

The star of the Sotheby's sale, a work by Ferdinand Leger, went for $39.2 million. In second place was the painting below,"Girls on a Bridge," by Edvard Munch. It's a bit cheerier than his famous "Scream."


Graham Kirkham, aka Baron Kirkham of Old Cantley, bought "Girls"in 1996 for $7.7 million. Last evening at Sotheby's it fetched a record $30.8 million. Even after reducing that figure by a few million to allow for the buyer's premium, Baron Kirkham appears to have enjoyed an annualized return on his art investment of about 11%.

Not bad. And that's not counting the psychic income the Baron received along the way. Nobody ever invited guests to a country house to admire the municipals.