There is silence at Christie’s New York headquarters.
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(Foto: imago images/UPI Photo)
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New York As New York approaches the height of a health catastrophe, the art dealer remains Edward Tyler Nahem sober. “I can’t see any panic in the market at the moment, although it would probably be trendy,” the New York trader told Handelsblatt.
The dealer conducted the conversation via the “Facetime” app from his second home in the Hamptons. Because also Nahem, like everyone else in town, had to temporarily close its gallery space in mid-March. It is probably a bit premature to draw conclusions, he says, “but it has become much quieter”. Although there are still transactions, some had been initiated before the outbreak of the corona pandemic.
For 35 years, Nahem has been bustling around on the lucrative secondary market for highly traded blue-chip artists. But the success of his first New York exhibition of abstract paintings by Kenneth V. Young, which opened a few weeks ago and priced between $ 60,000 and $ 350,000, is still uncertain.
Young belonged to the so-called Washington Color School of the 1960s and 1970s, which everyone is talking about again thanks to its international shooting star Sam Gilliam. Works had been reserved, but “the crisis pulled the rug out from under our feet,” adds Nahem. Almost everyone in the industry is now looking for alternative ways to keep the business going.
Also near just set up a digital one „Viewing Room“ one. However, the 71-year-old is more of the “old school”. He relies on personal calls instead of emails. “I am not a friend of these e-mails sent out randomly and everywhere. You can easily come across as a little insensitive, ”he says.
The New York art dealer has set up a “Viewing Room”. Like many others, he had to temporarily close his gallery.
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(Photo: Galerie Edward Tyler Nahem)
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In contrast, colleagues invest like Fergus McCaffrey strong in their digital presence. In time for mid-March he was able to open his gallery „FM Virtual“ unlock. After New York, Tokyo and St. Barth, it is their “fourth branch”. It simulates exhibitions of sculptures and paintings in a perfectly lit huge gallery. Visitors can have everything explained to them in five different languages, including Mandarin, French, German, and Japanese.
Also Christie’s and Sotheby’s have recently been supplementing their well-established online auctions with publicly accessible digital “viewing rooms” for their private sales. Because action continues. One or the other collector may suffer a liquidity crisis. However, other market participants are looking for bargains.
Prices dropped by up to 35 percent
“I have constant conversations with collectors who sell privately and others who want to acquire valuable works,” describes the New York art advisor Christine Minas their experiences. But everything is currently a little slower and more cumbersome. International transports are more difficult and also more expensive, the discreet presentation rooms of the art warehouse are only available to a limited extent or not at all. Good photos or face-time consultations are often used as a quality control.
The legendary New York financier Asher Edelman, among other things the founder of ArtAssure, an art loan company, is helping illiquid collectors. In mid-March, Edelman immediately sent a widely spread e-mail to buy blue-chip works from modern to well-established contemporary artists at prices 30 to 35 percent below those of the previous month, with the support of investors. Since then, he has been offered around 50 works, adds the businessman.
It is uncertain whether the works in the exhibition affected by the lockdown will be sold.
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(Foto: Adam Reich, Courtesy of Edward Tyler Nahem)
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Edelman was just visiting a collector who was about to part with three works worth ten million dollars. “In four months they may only be worth 50 percent,” he estimates. So far, he has no concrete plans to resell them. “Maybe I’ll get them out in three to four years, when I think this recession is over. Great art will always be great art, ”emphasizes the shrewd financier.
However, some investment categories, such as coins or wine and spirits, are now enjoying increasing demand. Christie’s and Sotheby’s have just announced additional online auctions for this.
Collection areas with a reliable market
Lark Mason, the iGavelauctions.com, an online auction house specializing in Asian goods, which has been operating successfully since 2003, sums it up: “In these uncertain times, collectors are turning to safe, alternative investment opportunities. This includes handy things that can be easily transported or well-established collection areas. These are things that they understand, that they can access and that have a reliable market. ”For example, jewelery and watches or Chinese art for buyers in mainland China, but also in the west.
More: Art Market Report: The art market faces an uncertain future
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