Lets make one thing clear. This blog is first and foremost about classic cars and vintage watches.
Art clearly comes in under the colleting /investing category and third place. Give us a 250 SWB or a Warhol or even Rothko- we will take the SWB any day. Having said that the art market is as strong as ever. When we had the chance to go to the preview day at Art Basel– of course we took this opportunity with pleasure.
Like with other collectable categories, Art has profited handsomely over the past few years. In fact since 2008 most tangible assets like vintage cars, watches, Art, musical instruments- they have all done well (for an interesting article on collectibles by the Economist click here). So how was the mood at Art Basel? Well it was, vibrant and energetic. Not surprising given that the auctions houses are selling more Art at record prices than ever (Christies sold almost $800m worth of art in one session earlier this year). The highest work for any artwork sold at public auction was achieved only a few months ago with a Francis Bacon selling for almost $150m to Casino billionaire Elaine Wynn (wife of Steve Wynn the billionaire Casino owner). Sooner or later the Art market will correct, as will classic cars, watches and anything other that is collectible.
But with central banks keeping interest rates so low worldwide, money will continue to find its way into art. Here a few pieces that I found interesting.
We start with Warhol who was a pioneer in the pop art world. Easy to understand and provocative with his images, Warhol is very easy to like. Below a set of flowers. Both were priced at $1.9m and available at Gagosian.
Another set of flowers was available in red from a Dutch gallery. The price was significantly higher. Why do I like the flowers by Warhol? Because when I used to work at a bank, I had the luxury of sitting right opposite a Warhol with flowers print.
Next we move on to another very popular Warhol series: The ‘Maos’. This was a spectacular example in an attractive color combination done in 1979. For further information see the description below.
The work is below. A NY Gallery was asking $8m for it.
Another popular Warhol series is the ‘Marilyn’ one. I personally prefer the single Marilyn’s but a series can work to, provided it is in the right color. I am not sure this series below would be my first choice.
Moving on to a Chinese Artist who is very popular right now: Zeng Fanzhi. His works achieve the highest auction records for any contemporary Asian artist. Below the well-known ‘Masks Series’, this work is from 1999.
Moving on to photography we thought this photograph is great- it helps that the actor is indeed a great personality. The photographer is Platon who is English.
We end with one of my favorite photographers, Richard Avedon. He did this wonderful portrait of Bardot in 1959, so very early on. This is a vintage photograph in a nice large size. The asking price of this work was €205′ooo. Only 35 photographs of Bardot were made. Avedon is considered one of most important photographers in the past century.
