The first semester for the art market is about to come to an end and before its conclusion Christie’s auction house is going to try itself out with an auction completely dedicated to author prints. Indeed, on 31st July Christie’s New York is going to propose a very interesting sale that will attract many neo-collectors, thanks to the very low estimates that vary from 300 to 18 thousand dollars. “Prints & Multiples” will auction 357 lots, including 29 works by Pablo Picasso, 23 by Joan Mirò and 5 by Marc Chagall. If we look through the catalogue we will see many interesting works that could give an excellent result to this sale dedicated to prints and multiples, a sector considered as one the minor sectors of the art market.

New works by Damien Hirst, including a sheep with a golden horn and a zebra in formaldehyde, are expected to fetch £65m when they go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in September.
The collection, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, is the first by a major living artist to go straight to sale on the open market rather than via a dealer or gallery.
The 223-lot collection unveiled yesterday contains The Golden Calf, Hirst’s largest ever formaldehyde creation, which is expected to fetch £12m. Another, The Black Sheep with the Golden Horn, should sell for more than £2m. Among the cheapest lots are sketches by the artist, which are likely to cost £20,000. “When it comes to the drawing and the inspiration, it is all Damien’s,” said a spokesman for the auction house. “But when it comes to the construction, he employs people in his workshops to do that.”
Sending work straight to auction allows artists to retain greater control over their work and widen the net of buyers. Hirst said it felt “like a natural evolution for contemporary art” but also said he would not stop selling his work through galleries. (The Independent)

Title: Wunderkammer: A Century of Curiosities
Location: NEW YORK - MoMA
Description: Wunderkammern, or cabinets of curiosities, arose in mid-sixteenth-century Europe as repositories for all manner of wondrous and exotic objects.
Start Date: 2008-07-30
End Date: 2008-11-10

translated by Giorgina Arcuri

Damien Hirst, ex symbol of the Young British Artists, still has the absolutely particular ability to draw to himself the attention not only of the art system, but of the whole world. Everyone will remember the scandal caused by “For the Love of God”. For this human skull covered with 8,601 diamonds for a total of 1,106 carats, a group of anonymous buyers forked out 73 and a half million euros, against a valuation of 18.8 million dollars.
“For the Love of God”, the now famous work by Hirst presented at the White Cube Gallery in London, has levelled out a new road and the artist intends to go along it right to the end. The diamond-studded skull was a scoop, even for the various philosophical digressions stirred up and impressed on the relation between death and life, love, immortality and art itself.

BOROS OPENS TO THE PUBLIC HIS CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTION

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Recently, in German cities, a new architectonic trend has started to spread, a trend that tries to modify existing buildings not in their space or aspect, but in their use. Indeed, Berlin has recently experienced a similar operation regarding a bunker. Built in 1942 for the German railway company, it was supposed to protect from air raids travellers arriving from Friedrichstrasse Station.

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Art Basel has started and the buyers have arrived. However, the Americans are missing. This seems to be the biggest complaint on behalf of operators. The American public has stepped aside and given way to the Europeans. It is not a change that affects the number of transactions, but rather an actual geographic shift of the market. This does not worry all the art gallery managers, some of whom have proven to be indifferent with respect to who buys the works. Also because many of the participants are too busy calculating their business volume to worry about the nationality of the buyers.

FROM JOHNS TO HIRST AND KOONS AND FINALLY FREUD

translated by Giorgina Arcuri

translated by Giorgina Arcuri

In the history of the art market, the 15th May 2007 will certainly be remembered as an memorable evening in New York, thanks to the hammer prices that roused surprise, disbelief and astonishment among auctioneers, sellers and buyers.