Above is a view of the enormous, enthusiastic audience at yesterday’s extraordinarily successful Impressionist/modern sale that kicked off the three-day, six-session dispersal of the collection of Pierre Bergé and the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. (I hope they had lots of bid spotters.)
Steven Erlanger of the NY Times reports:
More than 1,200 buyers, dealers, collectors and wealthy art lovers were
in their seats as Christie’s staff members took bids from those abroad
on 100 telephone lines. Most of the buyers were said to be American and
European.
Kelly Crow and Max Colchester of the Wall Street Journal report:
The rousing kick-off marks a dramatic turnabout for a global art market that’s been ailing since last fall….The sale won’t be able to fix the art market’s problems overnight, however.
Still, you can bet that dealers and auctioneers will be milking these results for all they’re worth, asserting to everyone in earshot that the art market is poised to rebound. But this sale may well be an anomaly: Other art-market wares lack the YSL label and the glamor of the Grand Palais venue. Provenance counts.
Christie’s recap of the extraordinary results is here. The top ten lots, including five of the seven artists’ auction records, are here. The auction total of €206 million ($266 million) was a world record for a private collection sold at auction. And it’s not over: The sales continue today and tomorrow.