Artprice: The Art Market Snaps up the New "Classics of Contemporary Art"

"Not only is demand strong for the best artworks… above all the market seems to have moved into a new paradigm that will allow it to renew its offer: it can now produce new 'classics' by offering 'masterpieces of Contemporary art'.

"This is what we saw with Jeff Koons'Rabbit (1986) sculpture. It was presented by Christie's as an 'icon' of Contemporary Art, in the same way as paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and probably certain works by Damien Hirst as well. But we will have to wait until the next big sales to see confirmation of this trend."

Jeff Koons is now more expensive than Van Gogh or Rubens...

A new record of $91 million – making Jeff Koons the world's most valued living artist – also gives him a special place in Art History. To everyone's surprise, his Rabbit (1986) became more expensive on the auction market than any of Van Gogh's works to date. The Dutch master's record is still standing at $82.5 million since his Portrait du Docteur Gachet sold in 1990. 

Only 11 artists in auction history have ever generated results above the Jeff Koons Rabbit: da Vinci, Picasso, Modigliani, Bacon, Qi Baishi, Munch, Monet, Basquiat, Warhol, Lichtenstein and Hopper. If the Jeff Koons Market has been somewhat dormant in recent years, it is now completely revived... And with him, the entire Contemporary Art machine has received a boost.

Rauschenberg at the top

Two years after his retrospective at the MoMA and the Tate Modern, Robert Rauschenberg is a bright star of the auction market. The American artist-sculptor, who campaigned for the introduction of artists' resale rights after the sale of the Robert Scull collection in 1973, probably didn't imagine that his works would ever reach such amounts.

On 15 May 2019, his Buffalo II reached $88 million at Christie's. Locked up for 54 years in the collection of Robert B. Mayer, who acquired it directly from the Leo Castelli Gallery, this painting is both an ode to and a critique of the American Dream. This new record puts him in the same league as his contemporaries Andy Warhol ($105.4 million) and Roy Lichtenstein ($96.4 million).

Monet triggers the 10th best-ever Fine Art auction result of all time

As exciting as a summer soap opera...! After the announcement of the sale of Claude Monet's (1840-1926) Meules at Sotheby's NY on 14 May, the question of a possible record was on everyone's lips! The last haystacks painting auctioned – with similar dimensions, date and composition – fetched more than $80 million at Christie's NY in November 2016. Monet's absolute record dates back to the sale of the Rockefeller collection in May 2018 when his Nymphéas en fleur fetched nearly $85 million (also at Christie's NY)… The suspense is now over: for eight long minutes on 14 May six bidders competed for the masterpiece. Harry Dalmeny finally brought the hammer down at $110.7 million. That's more than 40 times its previous value: already sold in 1986 for $2.53 million, the work belonged to the descendants of Bertha and Potter Palmer, wealthy Chicago collectors, who acquired the Meules painting through Paul Durand-Ruel in 1891.

Sotheby's had already set the bar high – betting on the work's prestigious provenance – giving the work a low estimate of $55 million (a fact that did not go unnoticed in the art press)... However, in the end, an Impressionist painting has crossed the symbolic threshold of $100 million for the first time ever. Meules also enters the Top 10 most expensive artworks ever sold publicly. The interest for the Impressionists and 19th century works is undeniable, despite the attraction for Contemporary Art and the new generation of bidders arriving on the market. Asian collectors are particularly enthusiastic and are now contribute to the stability of this section of the market.

Copyright ©2019 thierry Ehrmann – www.artprice.com

Try our services (free demo):
https://www.artprice.com/artist/23640/baishi-qi

Subscribe to our services:
https://www.artprice.com/subscription

About Artprice:

Artprice is listed on the Eurolist by Euronext Paris, SRD long only and Euroclear: 7478 - Bloomberg: PRC - Reuters: ARTF.

Founded by thierry Ehrmann (see Who's who certified Biography ) (c) https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2019/03/2019-bio-whoswho-thierry-ehrmann.pdf).

Dicover Artprice in video: https://www.artprice.com/video

Artprice is the global leader in art price and art index databanks. It has over 30 million indices and auction results covering more than 700,000 artists. Artprice Images® gives unlimited access to the largest Art Market resource in the world: a library of 126 million images or prints of artworks from the year 1700 to the present day, along with comments by Artprice's art historians.

Artprice permanently enriches its databanks with information from 6,300 auctioneers and it publishes a constant flow of art market trends for the world's principal news agencies and approximately 7,200 international press publications.

For its 4,500,000 members, Artprice gives access to the world's leading Standardised Marketplace for buying and selling art. Artprice is preparing its blockchain for the Art Market. It is BPI-labelled (scientific national French label) Artprice's Global Art Market Annual Report for 2018 published last March 2019: https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-art-market-in-2018

Artprice is associated with Artron Group the Chinese leader in the Art Market, its solid institutional partner.

About the Artron Group:

"Artron Art Group (Artron), a comprehensive cultural industrial group founded in 1993 by Wan jie, is committed to inheriting, enhancing and spreading art value. Based on abundant art data, Artron provides art industry and art fans with professional service and experience of quality products by integrated application of IT, advanced digital science and innovative crafts and materials.

Having produced more than 60,000 books and auction catalogues, Artron is the world's largest art book printer with a total print volume of 300 million a year. It has more than 3 million professional members in the arts sector and an average of 15 million daily visits, making it the world's leading art website."

Artron's Web: www.Artron.net

Artprice's Contemporary Art Market Annual Report for 2018 - free access at:
https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-contemporary-art-market-report-2018

Artprice's press releases:
http://serveur.serveur.com/Press_Release/pressreleaseen.htm
https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom

Artmarket News:
https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom & https://twitter.com/artmarketdotcom
https://www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom 4 million subscribers
http://artmarketinsight.wordpress.com/

Discover the Alchemy and the universe of Artprice http://web.artprice.com/video, which headquarters are the famous Museum of Contemporary Art, the Abode of Chaos: https://issuu.com/demeureduchaos/docs/demeureduchaos-abodeofchaos-opus-ix-1999-2013
https://vimeo.com/124643720

The Contemporary Art Museum The Abode of Chaos
https://www.facebook.com/la.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999  3.6 million subscribers

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/890471/Artprice.jpg  

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/817151/Artprice_Logo.jpg  

Contact: thierry Ehrmann, [email protected]