How Interest Rates Impact the Art Market https://ift.tt/fixLNuV

Earlier this month, the U.S. Federal Reserve made the decision to cut interest rates by 0.5%. This cut is the first since the early onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It means that the base rate—what the Fed charges banks to borrow money—now sits between 4.75% and 5%.

This change, which follows similar moves from other central banks such as the Bank of England, is expected to have an impact on everything from credit cards to mortgages and will have a ripple effect on the global economy.

The art market, which tends to thrive in lower interest rate environments, is likely to be impacted. Here, we explain the basics of interest rates and how they impact the art market.

What are interest rates?

Simply put, interest rates are the cost of loaning money or the return on investing money, expressed as a percentage. When taking out a loan, a lender will offer a rate that is charged as compensation for supplying the funds. For example, if you take out a loan of $1,000 with an annual interest rate of 5%, you’d pay back $50 in interest over one year.

When investing or depositing money in a savings account, interest is earned as compensation from the bank where it is held. So, for example, if you deposit $1,000 in an account with a 5% annual interest rate, you will earn $50 in interest after a year.

The main factor influencing interest rates is central bank policy. Central banks—such as the Federal Reserve in the U.S., the Bank of England in the U.K., and the European Central Bank in the E.U.—set what is called a base rate for their jurisdictions. These rates act as a benchmark for the cost of borrowing money between commercial banks and have a direct impact on the fees that these institutions charge their customers.

A higher base rate makes it more expensive for banks to borrow money, which is passed on to the consumer. A lower base rate, meanwhile, makes the cost of loans cheaper, encouraging investment and spending.

The setting of interest rates is primarily influenced by inflation. When interest rates are high, people and businesses are more likely to spend and invest less, because it is more expensive to borrow money. This leads to a slowing of demand and therefore a deceleration of price rises, which lowers inflation. When interest rates are lower, money is cheaper to borrow and economic activity is stimulated, increasing investment and spending. But this can lead to an increase in demand, which, in turn, can lead to a rise in prices, causing an uptick in inflation.

Interest rates have fluctuated heavily in recent years. Rates were slashed to historical lows in the early 2020s—as low as 0.25% in the U.S.—to stimulate economic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, around 2022, inflation reached the highest levels in decades. This was caused in part by disruptions to supply chains and geopolitical events such as the war in Ukraine. Higher rates followed and by May 2023, the Federal Reserve had raised rates to 5–5.25%.

How do high interest rates affect the art market?

Untitled, 2022
Egle Karpaviciute
The Rooster Gallery

The art market has an intricate relationship with interest rates.

Higher interest rates, such as those seen in recent years, can cause the art market to stiffen. In other words, because higher rates make it more expensive to borrow money, the liquidity of and spending on luxury goods such as art can become constrained.

“The current cost of capital being so high makes it much less attractive to borrow for acquisition purposes unless our client believes that the opportunity on the purchase is so tremendous that they can’t ignore doing it,” said Jim Carona, director of the Palm Desert–founded gallery Heather James Fine Art.

Art is classified as a non-liquid asset, meaning that it doesn’t generate instant cashflow. This increases the risk of investing in art during a period of high interest rates when assets with more stable returns—such as government bonds—are favored. During high interest rate periods, many collectors can also find themselves less liquid, said Drew Watson, head of art services at Bank of America. He noted that in recent high interest rate years, some buyers “could not participate in the market to the extent they had previously, resulting in less depth of bidding and lower prices.”

This impacts the sell side of the market, too. Collectors become less likely to put works up for sale because they view the market as less favorable, and worry about the ability to sell their work for a strong price, such as in recent high interest rate periods. “Sellers are less willing to bring large single-owner collections and trophy works to market unless they have to,” said Watson.

The effects of high interest rates can be seen at the top end of the auction market, where inventory with estimates in the six figures and above is typically consigned. In high interest rate periods, those top lots are less likely to go to auction. Last year, for instance, the top 100 lots at auction totaled $2.4 billion, which was a steep decline from $4.1 billion in 2022, when interest rates were at record lows at the start of the year.

That being said, art is often viewed as a hedge against high inflation because it is perceived as having a long-term store of value. When demand can soften as a result of lower liquidity and higher rates, collectors can take advantage of lower artwork prices. From an investment perspective, this is often viewed as an attractive long-term play, where these works can accrue value over time.

How do low interest rates affect the art market?

Stop fighting. Just buy III, 2020
Egle Karpaviciute
The Rooster Gallery

In a lower interest rate environment, borrowing money becomes cheaper and can boost liquidity in the art market. “When interest rates were near 0%, our wealthiest clients could borrow for less than 1%, either using their existing art collection as collateral or using the funds for new acquisitions,” said Carona. “At that time, there was a tremendous amount of liquidity being pumped into the system.”

Low interest rates also create what is known as the “wealth effect.” This comes about when lower rates lead to an increase in the value of assets such as stocks and real estate, resulting in higher spending on luxury goods such as art. Many collectors are influenced by the gains in their financial portfolios that can be seen during these periods. “Buyers have more liquidity to bid for major lots, thereby increasing competitive bidding and realized prices,” said Watson.

Low interest rates have also historically increased the demand for alternative investments like art, which is another factor leading to increased demand and rising prices. Sellers are more likely to take advantage of this environment, adding to the liquidity in the market. “Auction houses have more capital to coax more trophy works and major collections to market with guarantees,” said Watson. “Sellers see greater depth of bidding and feel more confident bringing more high-value supply to market.”

Carona points to the low interest rate environment of 2020–2022 as an example of this. “The market was being flooded by liquidity from the Federal Reserve, and at the same time interest rates were essentially zero,” he said. “This was the catalyst for the incredible run-up we saw in art prices across the board, but most prominently in young artists under 45 years of age.”

Auction performance can mirror the public picture of what many galleries also notice privately during low interest rate periods: that collectors are more liquid, and spend with increased confidence. These factors can also lead to a shorter sales cycle, noted James Ward, director of London’s JC Gallery. “The thing I notice most is the length of conversion time for a sale,” he said. “A greater depth of thinking time is taken when the interest rates are higher. Once rates are cut, there’s an underlying positivity in purchasing.”

Are interest rates influencing art collectors?

Dollar Sign (FS II.274), 1982
Andy Warhol
Revolver Gallery

Dollar Sign Painting, 1981
Andy Warhol
Revolver Gallery

The art market, like any high-value market, is undoubtedly impacted by interest rates. But it does not simply grind to a halt or run red hot as a result of their fluctuations. After all, collectors purchase art for a variety of reasons beyond financial gain or asset appreciation.

Some collectors are not affected at all. The purchasing power of the ultra-rich, who dominate the top end of the market, is barely dented, for example. “For the mid-high level of active art market collectors, interest rates have a minor impact on their decision whether or not to buy,” noted Ward.

Artworks at the top levels of the market are also less affected because they are rare and sought after, irrespective of the economic environment. For example, in the summer auction season of 2023, with interest rates at 5% in the U.K., Gustav Klimt’s Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) (1917) sold for a record price of £85.3 million ($106.76 million).

No matter the weather, for the most coveted artworks, a bidder can almost always be found.

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Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Amy Sherald, and others donate works to “Artists for Kamala” sale. https://ift.tt/qiX7a90

As the 2024 U.S. presidential election approaches on November 5th, more than 160 artists have donated works to “Artists for Kamala” an online-only art fundraiser with proceeds going directly to the Harris Victory Fund and Democrats across the country. Running from September 30 to October 8, 2024, the benefit sale will feature works ranging in price from $250 for prints to major works with estimates in the six figure–range by leading artists including Jeff Koons and Jenny Holzer.

Works from over 50 renowned artists will be featured in an online auction and sale on Artsy, including pieces by Koons and Holzer, as well as Amy Sherald, Betye Saar, Catherine Opie, George Condo, Hank Willis Thomas, Rashid Johnson, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Simone Leigh, Kay WalkingStick, and Shepard Fairey, among others. The Artsy portion alone is expected to raise over $1 million.

“Art has always been a powerful way to express one’s vision and ideals and to mobilize people into action,” said Harris for President campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in a statement. “The artworks in the ‘Artists for Kamala’ collection do so brilliantly. We are so grateful to the art community for using their creativity, trusted voices, and powerful work to support Vice President Harris’s campaign to turn the page on hate and division, and move our country forward.”

Highlights from “Artists for Kamala” include:

• Holzer’s Selection from Truisms: There are too few… (2023), a granite bench engraved with one of the artist’s signature, bitingly candid proclamations. The blue stone is engraved with the phrase “There are too few immutable truths today,” one of Holzer’s iconic “Truisms.” The piece has an estimate of $200,000.
• Sherald’s As soft as she is…, (2023), a striking 70-color screenprint featuring a woman in a striking ensemble gazing directly at the viewer. The spare, elegant portrayal, with shocks of color and skin portrayed in shades of gray, is evocative of Sherald’s best known work, a portrayal of former first lady Michelle Obama. This piece, from a limited edition of 35, has an estimate of $50,000.
• Koons’s American Flagpole (Gazing Balls) (2024), a huge 25-foot American flag with three of his typical 12-inch gazing balls at its base, in red, white, and blue. An edition of one plus one artist’s proof, the new work has an estimate of $300,000.
• Thomas’s Fragile, Democracy, Handle with Care (2024), a limited-edition silkscreen from an edition of 50 unique variations which riffs on familiar “handle with care” stickers to urge for the protection of democratic rights. The bold, cobalt blue piece has an estimate of $10,000.

Since Vice President Harris was announced as the Democratic nominee in late July, numerous artists, including Carrie Mae Weems and Shepard Fairey, have shown public support, alongside major art patrons like Agnes Gund.

Gund is also part of the Artists for Kamala advisory board, alongside fellow philanthropists, artists, collectors, and art world professionals, including Stephanie Robinson, Sarah Arison, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and Komal Shah, among others.

The Artists for Kamala sale and auction on Artsy will launch at 4 p.m. EDT on September 30th, ahead of a Harris Victory Fund event in New York that evening. Lots will begin to close on October 8th at 3 p.m. EDT.

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Pace Gallery will represent Li Hei Di, now the youngest artist on its roster. https://ift.tt/ZR2TpgD

Pace Gallery has announced its representation of Li Hei Di, a young artist whose paintings combine figuration and abstraction to explore themes of embodiment, intimacy, and displacement. Li, who was born in 1997, will now be the youngest artist on the mega-gallery’s roster. They will be represented jointly by Pace, Michael Kohn Gallery, and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery.

This move by Pace is the latest in a string of major galleries signing rising talents from the younger generation. Earlier this month, Sasha Gordon became the youngest artist to join the roster of David Zwirner and will be represented in partnership with her longtime gallery, Matthew Brown. Additionally, Hauser & Wirth recently announced that it will represent Michaela Yearwood-Dan, in collaboration with New York’s Marianne Boesky Gallery. And just yesterday, White Cube announced that it would represent Alia Ahmad, the first artist from the Arab Gulf region to join the gallery.

Of Mercy to Shelter and Shield, 2024
Li Hei Di
Michael Kohn Gallery

Li was recently featured in The Artsy Vanguard 2023–2024, an annual feature that identifies early-career artists poised to shape contemporary art’s future. Gordon was also featured in the list, as was Yearwood-Dan (both in 2022).

Li’s first significant appearance with Pace will come this December, when a new painting by the artist will be featured at the gallery’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach. Moreover, their first solo exhibition with Pace is slated for spring 2025 in Hong Kong. Joshua Friedman, Senior Director at Pace Los Angeles, has worked closely with the artist since his time at Michael Kohn Gallery. He will continue to lead the gallery’s representation of Li.

Featuring contrasting palettes, translucent figures and layered compositions, Li’s work explores narratives around gender and desire. Pace’s President, Samanthe Rubell, pointed to Li’s ability to merge abstraction with explorations of gender fluidity, noting that this combination has made Li one of the most compelling young painters working today. “Their incredible technical skill, rigorous investigations of sex and gender, and morphing of languid figures into luminous abstractions have made them one of the most inventive young painters working today,” she said.

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8 Standout Artists at the Gwangju Biennale 2024 https://ift.tt/3MOW8n5

As an art event, the Gwangju Biennale has a unique remit: to commemorate the horrific tragedy of the violently suppressed student-led uprising that took place in the city in May 1980. But for the 2024 Gwangju Biennale, unlike previous editions, this legacy was less of a central focus. Directed by French curator Nicolas Bourriaud, the event, mainly located in Gwangju’s Biennale Hall, instead is based on the idea of pansori, a Korean folk musical tradition whose name translates to “noise from the public space.” This theme brings together works from 72 artists to create a “soundscape of the 21st century,” according to the exhibition’s tagline. In sharp contrast with this year’s Venice Biennale, all of the participants are living.

Sound, as one might expect, features prominently in the show. Noel W. Anderson, for instance, cleverly splices James Brown songs into a supercut of the singer’s grunts and vocalizations, echoing through the exhibition’s stairway in a meditation on Black masculinity. Many of the works on view explore oppression and marginalization: issues, according to the curatorial framework, of taking up, and making noise, in public space. Climate change also features prominently in the artworks’ themes. The soundscape of the current moment, according to this show, is a lamentation for a world in crisis.

Elsewhere, in the various satellite pavilions spread across the city and running outside of the main show’s curatorial framework, some artists have taken on the mantle of the city’s history of political dissent. At the CDA Holon pavilion, a troupe of university student performers will march to the city’s Democracy Square once a week throughout the Biennale’s run, their choreography developed by the pavilion’s artists with movements based on state-sanctioned violence.

Here are the standout artists from the Gwangju Biennale 2024.

Mira Mann

B. 1993, Frankfurt, Germany. Lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Of all the art on view, Mira Mann’s work engages with the tradition of pansori most directly—particularly their installations that are scattered throughout an empty house in the Yangnim district. There, Mann’s video Mother may recall another (2022)—first presented at DREI in 2022—is shown on three TV screens set on the floor. The piece reinterprets the tale of Simcheongga. This typical pansori story of a daughter sacrificing herself in the Indang Sea to save her father from blindness is told obliquely, through meandering scenes of contemporary life shot in home video–style footage. The central character is played by the artist’s family members and other artists, as the traditional Korean story is sung on top.

Born to a Korean mother in Germany, Mann often explores the history of Korean immigration to their home country in their work. Another installation in the Biennale’s main location, a long dressing room–style mirror titled objects of the wind (2024), is a memorial to the many Korean nurses who immigrated to Germany in the late 1960s, bringing the Korean folk drumming tradition of pungmul with them. Jindo buk drums, alongside feathered fans and stainless steel instruments, adorn the monument.

Andrius Arutiunian

B. 1991, Vilnius, Lithuania. Lives and works in The Hague, Netherlands.

With the Gwangju Biennale’s focus on sound, it’s perhaps unsurprising that one of the standout artists would be a musician. Arutiunian is a composer as well as an artist, working with sonic dissent and personal histories of sound. In the main pavilion, his visually arresting work Below (2024) consists of five bitumen sculptures. These haunting, black gloop–covered discs atop speaker-height stands emit a low, rumbling audio that tugs at the edge of the viewer’s awareness. This sound is supposed to evoke the progress of the material as it bubbles up through the earth’s crust.

Elsewhere, in the Biennale’s hub in the Yangnim district, Arutiunian has taken over the tiny confines of the Podonamu Art Space with another sound-based work. There, the artist has recreated a 1940s harmonium performance by the legendary Armenian Greek mystic and composer George Gurdjieff, which he has slowed down to a five-hour piece. The work recalls an improvised performance in Gurdjieff’s niche mid-century Paris milieu, attempting to echo this human connection, decades later.

Beaux Mendes

B. 1987, New York. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Scanning the row of Beaux Mendes’s small paintings in the Biennale’s main show, it is difficult to place them as landscape paintings. But though these canvases seem devoid of sunlight—containing mostly ghostly gray or obscure dark brown shapes—they stem from a process that begins en plein air. The series on view, “Black Forest,” is named after an area in the south of Germany that inspired it.

Mendes comes from a long line of German rabbis, and their grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. They traveled to Germany to work in isolation on these shadowy works in both the Bavarian Forest and the Elbe Valley (beloved by Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich). Made with unusual mediums and techniques, such as marble powder and water marbling, these sometimes murky, shadowy works conjure an ambivalent image of the artist’s familial history of displacement from this land. They also subvert the history of Romantic landscape painting, which glamorized the natural world with depictions of sweeping vistas and was used to bolster the fascistic ethos of the Nazis.

Alex Cerveny

B. 1963, São Paulo. Lives and works in São Paulo.

In one of the upper galleries in the main Biennale pavilion, Alex Cerveny’s paintings depict a kind of historically informed, encyclopedic panorama gesturing to themes of historical international migration. In Terra Santa (2023), a hilly desert landscape is annotated with illustrations of bodies, plants, and alphabetical lists of names and places, drawing links between seemingly disparate themes, like Biblical plagues of Egypt and pop songs (“Yes Sir I Can Boogie,” “One Moment in Time”).

In the most recent work on view, the long, horizontal seascape Boat People (2024), Cerveny focuses on the migration of Vietnamese people following the Vietnam War. With its title and literary reference points (The Odyssey and Moby Dick) painted on a framing band at the top of the work, the sparsely illustrated scene draws fascinating links between the colonial history of seafaring and its mythological sources. Cyclops, for instance, is one of the monsters faced by Odysseus in Homer’s poem, but also the name of a ship lost at sea in 1918. It heads up a long list of historical shipwrecks that snakes down the center of the painting.

Yuyan Wang

B. 1989, Qingdao, China. Lives and works in Paris.

Thick sludge courses through Yuyan Wang’s new film Green Grey Black Brown (2024). Muddy petroleum bubbles in its crude form in clips of found aerial footage of crater-like oil fields. In close-ups, gigantic fingers place power lines next to miniature models of oil pumps. A creepily slowed-down version of Yes’s classic 1980s power anthem “Owner of a Lonely Heart” loops throughout the film, giving it a dark and surreal edge.

Presented in the main pavilion of the Gwangju Biennale, in a room carpeted wall to wall with fake plastic grass, the work splices together scenes of ecocide with scenes of artificial flower production on factory assembly lines. In Wang’s film, oil becomes plastic, which in turn becomes sad, faded versions of nature’s ripest beauty. The result is a hypnotic meditation on globalization and climate change.

Brianna Leatherbury

B. 1995, Woodbridge, Virginia. Lives and works in Amsterdam.

In a corner of one of the main Biennale hall’s upper floors stands a strange, boxed-off room that viewers enter through plastic food service–style curtains. Inside, under whirring air conditioners, buzzing strip lights, and antiseptic-feeling silver walls, are a series of sculptures. Made of parts of a priceless Dutch colonial wardrobe and plated in copper, this is the work of American artist Brianna Leatherbury.

For this installation, the artist based their sculptures on the prized possessions of stock market investors who lent them objects that “they would take to their grave,” according to the artist’s description. Titled Burden (2024), it’s part of Leatherbury’s series “Insiders’ Grave,” and of their wider research into the meaning of value and ownership over time. The sculptures are randomly stacked, as if unintended for public view, and appear broken-down and dilapidated. Their copper layers seem to be peeling and discolored despite their temperature-controlled and sanitized environment, evoking the futility of capitalist structures on a decaying and warming planet.

Gaëlle Choisne

B. 1985, Cherbourg, France. Lives and works in Paris and London.

French artist Gaëlle Choisne’s assemblage works assert the potentially healing role of art in documenting the trauma of the past. For example, Eat me softly (Black unicorn) (2024)—on view at the Gwangju Biennale’s main pavilion—features a photograph of a derelict building UV-printed onto concrete slabs and leaned against the gallery walls. Part of a series documenting the impact of natural disasters on Port-au-Prince, the work is intended to memorialize these atmospheric, uninhabited locations.

Nearby, melons and other fruit, printed with a Korean translation of an Audre Lorde poem, are scattered onto the floor in a kind of offering. The work’s concrete slabs, meanwhile, are tempered with salt—a substance traditionally used for purification, but which also erodes the image printed onto this typically tough material. These ritual images elicit grief for their subjects, ravaged by climate change.

Togar

B. 1987, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Lives and works in Yogyakarta.

The Gwangju Biennale’s national pavilions—though similar in theory to the state-organized pavilions of Venice—are, in fact, put together by outside sources and only loosely affiliated with their respective countries. Indonesia’s national pavilion has been organized by artist Julian Abraham, a.k.a. Togar, and consists of a casual, welcoming space in the Asia Culture Center. It’s filled with beanbags for jam sessions, an immersive work of cardboard boxes, and the artist’s own idiomatic signs, printed in bright neons. “You may say I’m a drummer, but I’m not the only one,” reads one, riffing on the famous John Lennon lyric in Ed Ruscha–esque capitals.

The artist’s work is also featured in the main exhibition, in the Horanggasinamu Art Polygon. Here, he has created another welcoming environment, with more of his signature signs (“I’ve always been a fella but I’ll never be a Kuti”) along with tinkling kinetic sculptures. The standout work is BIOSPOKE (2024), a thoughtful, single-channel video exploring the history of sound in cinema with interviews and performances that dissect how voices have appeared on screen across time.

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Art Basel, Frieze and other leading art fairs sign up to climate action initiative. https://ift.tt/oOu9BHY

Thirteen major art fair organizations, including Frieze, Art Basel, and TEFAF, have joined the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) in a landmark initiative to combat climate change. The new alliance, which represents over 40 art fairs, aims to reduce the art world’s environmental impact. Its focuses include areas such as transportation, energy consumption, and waste.

The initiative includes a joint commitment statement and an “Art Fair Toolkit for Environmental Responsibility.” These frameworks will guide signatory fairs in reducing their carbon footprint, setting a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030. The toolkit outlines practical steps for fairs to address key sources of emissions, such as air freight and single-use materials, which account for a significant portion of the industry’s carbon output. According to the GCC, up to one-third of a typical gallery’s annual emissions are tied to art fair activities, with air freight representing about 70% of that figure.

It is rare to see some of the biggest names in the commercial art world come together to make such a statement. “Frieze is proud to be an active member of the Gallery Climate Coalition,” said Jon Ashman, chief financial and operations officer at Frieze. “The establishment of this toolkit marks a significant step forward, offering invaluable guidance to reduce the environmental impact of the art world.”

Andrew Strachan, General Manager of Fairs and Exhibition Platforms at Art Basel, echoed this sentiment, calling the collaboration “an important milestone” in driving sustainability. “By engaging in shared learning and mutual support, we are shaping a transformative dialogue aimed at leading the global art community toward a more sustainable future,” he said.

Will Korner, Head of Fairs at TEFAF, noted that the organization has reduced energy consumption at its Maastricht fair by 43% since 2019. “With our position in the art community comes a huge responsibility. Structural change requires immediate collective action,” he said.

Other art fairs who have signed up include Madrid and Lisbon fair ARCO, Copenhagen fair CHART, Liste Art Fair Basel, Ramsay Fairs (which runs the Affordable Art Fair), and New York’s The Art Show.

Gallery Climate Coalition is an international coalition of more than 1,500 arts organizations. Together, they hope to reduce the visual art sector’s impact on the environment, promoting zero waste practices and CO2 usage reduction. Heath Lowndes, Director of the Gallery Climate Coalition, praised the unprecedented collaboration: “Leading art fairs have recognized that there is no more business as usual. By working together, they have set an example for others in the sector to follow.”

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The 25 Auction Terms Every Art Collector Needs to Know https://ift.tt/Xju17Zy

For anyone new to collecting, auctions can be an enigmatic part of the market.

Auction houses are some of the art world’s most storied and recognizable institutions. With a history dating back to the 17th century, art auctions facilitate the sale of artworks through competitive bidding. Because their sales and results are public, they often play a significant role in illustrating art market trends.

The traditional image of an auction house—grand theaters of paddle waving and hammer raising—is still a common feature of the art world. But the eye-popping sales figures that often make headlines are not the full picture: Alongside these headline-grabbing sales, day auctions offer works at accessible price points, providing approachable entry points for new collectors.

Auctions take place both in person and online. Live auctions take place at an auction house such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s, or Phillips. Online auctions mirror this process digitally, with bids placed via platforms that allow anyone, anywhere, to take part. Many online auctions run concurrently with in-person events.

But auctions can often be intimidating to approach. Often populated with crowds of experienced collectors and advisors, in-person sales can present a bit of a learning curve once you’ve been handed your paddle and directed to the main event. One of the main reasons for this is the barrage of specialized terms used by auction houses, which can often cause confusion to the uninitiated, whether they are bidding in person or online.

Should you find yourself among the attendees at a major auction house or bidding online at home, you’ll need to know the basic lexicon to keep up with a fast-paced sale.

Here, we share 25 auction terms that every art collector needs to know before attending their first auction.

Appraisal

An appraisal is a formal evaluation of an artwork’s potential worth. An expert assesses the work based on factors like condition, authenticity, provenance, and market trends to reach a figure that represents its fair market value (see below). It can also be used to calculate an artwork’s insurance value and for issues such as estate planning.

Think of it like any valuable asset—a car, a diamond necklace, or a summer home. An owner of a painting might seek an appraisal to understand its value for insurance purposes, as well as set a sale price and ensure they have adequate coverage in case of loss or damage. If a collector wants to live with or sell their art, they often want to understand what’s at stake.

Bid

Plainly put, a bid is an offer of money for an item at an auction.

The bidding process begins when the auction house presents an artwork for sale, and participants signal their offers by placing bids. In person, this is indicated by raising a paddle. Online, it can be compared to placing a bid on eBay, except it’s done in real time and, often, in a fast-paced environment.

At in-person auctions, bidders can also participate without being physically present by placing an absentee bid, where they submit their maximum offer beforehand. There are also phone bids, where the collector instructs someone at the auction to bid on their behalf up to a specific limit.

Let’s say an artwork starts its bidding at $10 million. The auction kicks off with a bid in the book from an in-person bidder at $10.5 million. Then, a phone bid of $11 million shortly before a third absentee bid raises the price to $13 million. Each bid attempts to outmatch the others until the highest bid remains the only offer in play, marking the end of the bidding for that artwork.

Bought in

When bidders remain silent, and no offers meet the minimum price, an artwork is bought in. This means that the piece does not sell.

This “reserve price” is the lowest price the seller is willing to accept for the lot. If a work is put up for auction with a reserve price of $50,000, for example, and the highest bidder only reaches $45,000, the lot would not be sold.

Buyer’s premium

Winning bidders are often expected to pay a buyer’s premium. This fee is paid on top of the hammer price (see below) to the auction house for its services.

For example, if a painting sells for a hammer price of $10,000 and the buyer’s premium is set at 20%, the buyer will owe an additional $2,000 to the auction house, bringing the total payment to $12,000.

Cataloging

For every artwork an auction house offers for sale, it will catalog information about it to present to would-be bidders and browsers. This involves detailed descriptions of the artwork, its history, and other relevant notes of interest such as major exhibitions that it may have appeared in.

For example, an auction house would begin to catalog a painting by detailing its title dimensions, medium, date, and a brief description of its themes. It will also include its notable history and provenance (see below).

Commission agreement

A commission agreement is a contract that details the financial arrangements between a seller and an auction house. This contract specifies the fees the seller agrees to pay upon the sale of the artwork.

A consignor (see below) might enter into an agreement to pay a 15% commission to the auction house if their artwork sells. This contract typically covers not only the commission rate but also other potential fees for services like storage, insurance, and cataloging. If a piece sells for $100,000, for instance, the consignor would owe the auction house $15,000 as a commission.

Consignor

In short, the consignor is the person selling an artwork at auction. Rather than selling an artwork directly, a consignor is putting it into the care of a third party, usually an auction house. A collector might consign a painting from their private collection to an auction house, entrusting it to manage the sale and maximize the painting’s market value.

Condition report

The condition report is a detailed report, often written by a specialist, that gives you the history and current status of the physical condition of the artwork.

The condition report should include any restorations and surface irregularities, so a new buyer can understand the artwork’s physical appearance and integrity.

Reporte de condición, 2022
Marco Treviño
Proyecto Paralelo

Designation

In the art auction catalog, the designation line refers to a short description that identifies the person or entity selling the artwork (i.e. the consignor). This line appears at the top of each entry.

Often, consignors do not want to be named. For instance, an artwork sold by an anonymous American collector might read: “Property of a Distinguished American Collector.” This description can give some background for curious browsers without disclosing the owner’s full identity.

Estimate

Before each auction, the auction house provides an estimate, which is an informed prediction of the value of an artwork. Usually presented as a range, this estimate is based on factors like the artist’s previous auction results, market history, the condition of the work, the provenance, and sales by comparable artists.

How lots perform against their estimates is one of the most closely watched parts of an auction.

Fair market value

Fair market value is what an item could realistically sell for in an open market, typically determined during an appraisal.

As well as taking into account factors such as provenance and significance, fair market value considers the current demand for an artist’s work in the market but taking into account factors such as auction results.

Fair warning

The last chance to bid before an item is sold is known as a fair warning. An auctioneer might call out “fair warning” before surveying the room. If no one in the crowd raises the current bid, the artwork in question will be sold to the highest bidder.

Flipping

Flipping art is a practice that is not so different from other markets, such as real estate. It’s the practice of buying and reselling artwork for a profit, often within a short period of time, taking advantage of market demands.

For example, someone may purchase an artwork at auction only to “flip” it a few years later to capitalize on increased demand. Flipping is one of the most controversial practices in the art market and continues to be a topic of debate among commentators.

Gavel

The gavel, the quintessential tool of the auctioneer, is a small hammer that helps conduct the auction. With a decisive strike of the gavel on the podium, the auctioneer “hammers” to signal the end of bidding, sealing the price of the work in question.

Auction, 2015
Egle Karpaviciute
The Rooster Gallery

Guarantee

A guarantee in an auction setting ensures that an artwork sells for at least a pre-specified minimum price. This guarantee can be offered by the auction house itself, known as a “house guarantee,” or through a partnership with an external party such as a collector, gallery, art advisor, or investor, termed a “third-party guarantee.”

Guarantees have been a fixture of the art market’s top end for decades. For example, the notable Scull Collection sale at Sotheby’s in 1973 was secured with a house guarantee, ensuring the artworks would sell for a minimum agreed price.

The concept of a third-party guarantee was first prominently used in 1999 when Sotheby’s arranged for a backer to support the sale of a Pablo Picasso painting, guaranteeing a minimum price through external financing.

Hammer price

The highest bid once an auctioneer strikes the gavel on their podium is the hammer price. This sum is calculated without any fees imposed by the auction house.

Lot

In an auction, the lot refers to an item or group of items offered for sale as a single unit. One lot can consist of a set of sculptures or a single painting. Each lot is assigned a lot number, which serves as its identifier during the auction.

Provenance

One of the most critical components of the value of a painting is its provenance. Provenance refers to the history and ownership record of an item, tracing it back to its origin

For instance, Titian’s infamous Rest on the Flight into Egypt (ca. 1508), which sold for £17.56 million ($22.17 million) at Christie’s London in July 2024, offers a prime example of a storied provenance. The painting, which was previously owned by dukes, archdukes, and Holy Roman Emperors, was stolen twice—first by Napoleon in 1809 and again in 1995 from the Longleat estate in Wiltshire. The painting was miraculously recovered in 2002 in London, found in a plastic bag without its frame.

Reserve

The reserve, also known as the reserve price, is the lowest price that a seller will accept for an item.

If bidding fails to reach this threshold, the item is bought in (see above), meaning it does not sell and remains with the seller. Reserves are closely related to guarantees (see above): When an auction house or a third-party guarantee is in place, it means that the lot will sell for at least the reserve price.

Suppose a painting has a reserve set at $100,000. If the highest bid only reaches $90,000, the painting will be passed over—or bought in—because it did not meet the reserve price. This ensures the seller does not have to part with the artwork for a price that they deem less than acceptable.

Seller’s commission

The seller’s commission is the fee that a seller pays to the auction house as a percentage of the hammer price for the service of successfully selling their property. This commission is typically negotiable, especially for high-value lots, and does not include other sale-related expenses like photography and shipping.

For example, if a painting were to sell for $1 million at an auction and the commission rate agreed upon is 20%, then the seller would pay the auction house $200,000 as the commission fee. This percentage serves as compensation for the auction house’s efforts in marketing, presenting, and facilitating the sale of the artwork.

Sell-through rate

A sell-through rate is the percentage of lots from an auction that are sold. For instance, if 90 lots from a 100-lot auction are sold, the sell-through rate would be 90%.

Sell-through rates can serve as indicators of demand for a given part of the art market. They can also reveal trends, such as fluctuations in buyer interest. However, this can only tell part of the story. If an evening sale has a 100% sell-through rate, for example, one might think the sale was a success—when in reality, the works might have all sold for below their low estimates.

Underbidder

The underbidder is the second-highest bidder for a lot in an auction.

Picture this: You bid $500,000 on a work, feeling confident, only for someone else to swoop in with a $600,000 bid that you do not match. You are then the last bidder to drop out of the sale, becoming the underbidder.

Valuation

Valuation is an assessment of a lot’s value, often prepared by the staff at an auction house. Conducted by an expert, valuations differ from appraisals in that they are used for different purposes, such as insurance planning, or collateral loans. Unlike appraisals, they are not used to calculate auction estimates.

White glove sale

A white glove sale is an auction house’s dream scenario. This term—which refers to the white gloves worn by auction staff to handle artworks—is granted to a sale where every single item on the block finds a buyer. In November 2023, for example, Sotheby’s sold all 31 lots in its M. Fisher Landau sale, including works by Agnes Martin, Mark Tansey, and Picasso.

Withdrawn lot

Not every lot that is scheduled to appear at an auction makes its way to the block. These are called withdrawn lots, where an artwork is pulled from a sale, often at the last minute. This can be due to several issues, such as uncertain buyer interest, before a lot reaches the auction block.

Often, the reason for the withdrawal is not made public. It’s important to note that withdrawals are often omitted from sell-through rates when an auction house releases its final sales report.

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Wes Anderson to get retrospective exhibition at London’s Design Museum in 2025. https://ift.tt/we0Ir3C

For the first time ever, fans of filmmaker Wes Anderson will have the opportunity to explore a comprehensive retrospective of his work. Opening at London’s Design Museum on November 21, 2025, this exhibition will trace the evolution of Anderson’s distinctive style, from his early experiments in the 1990s to his most recent Oscar-winning films.

Produced in collaboration with La Cinémathèque Française, the exhibition will explore Anderson’s whimsical, meticulously crafted cinematic universe. The exhibition will display a wide range of original props, costumes, and set designs from Anderson’s filmography. Viewers will also gain behind-the-scenes insights through items from Anderson’s personal collection, offering an intimate look into the process behind his unique storytelling.

Known for their instantly recognizable aesthetic—featuring symmetrical compositions, vibrant color palettes, and quirky characters—Anderson’s films have defined a genre of their own, blending melancholy and humor with rich visual storytelling. Films like The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Moonrise Kingdom used props and costumes to create instantly recognizable worlds. Notable examples include the iconic pink façade of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Margot Tenenbaum’s fur coat and heavy eyeliner from The Royal Tenenbaums, and the meticulously crafted scout uniforms from Moonrise Kingdom. These elements reflect painstaking attention to detail that has made Anderson a household name.

Anderson’s distinctive aesthetic inspired the Instagram account Accidentally Wes Anderson, featuring photography that seems uncannily similar to stills from the director’s films. That account, in turn, inspired the traveling exhibition “Accidentally Wes Anderson,” which is currently on view in Melbourne.

The London Design Museum’s retrospective is not the first time the director has entered the museum world. Anderson has previously played curator for an exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. There, he collaborated with his partner, writer and illustrator Juman Malouf, to select pieces from the art museum’s 14 collections.

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$7.4 million David Hockney landscape to come to auction for the first time. https://ift.tt/qBGY2V7

David Hockney’s More Woldgate Timber, October 13th, 2009 (2009) will be sold as part of Christie’s 20/21st Century London evening sale next month. The work, which is being presented at auction for the first time, carries an estimate of £3.8 million–£5.5 million ($4.5 million–$7.4 million).

More Woldgate Timber, October 13th, 2009 comes from a series of landscapes painted by Hockney depicting the East Yorkshire countryside where he grew up. The artist began painting the seasons when he moved back to Yorkshire in 2004, often painting the same landscape multiple times as it moved through winter, spring, summer, and autumn.

“Hockney’s Yorkshire landscapes represent the maturation of his expressive painting style in the 2000s,” said Katharine Arnold, Christie’s vice chairman of 20th/21st century art and head of post-war and contemporary art, Europe. “Suffused with as much vitality as his Californian pictures, they reflect Hockney’s return to his roots, connecting to the British tradition of landscape painting.”

Few large-scale works from the series have reached the market. In 2022, Christie’s New York sold Winter Timber (2009) for $23.29 million, against an estimate of $10 million–$15 million as part of its sale of works from the Paul G. Allen Collection.

The announcement also follows a string of impressive results for works by Hockney that Christie’s has achieved this year. In March 2024, the auction house sold California (1965)—presented at auction for the first time since 1968—for £18.71 million ($25.02 million) in London. And in May 2024, it sold Hockney’s Lawn Being Sprinkled (1967) for $28.59 million in New York.

The 20/21st Century sale at Christie’s takes place on October 9th and is the auction house’s marquee event of Frieze Week in London. “Our October 20/21 marquee sale is thoughtfully curated to meet the evolving market demand, offering outstanding works that resonate with both seasoned and emerging collectors” added Arnold.

This news follows last week’s announcement that Sotheby’s will be auctioning Hockney’s L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime (1968) during its London evening auction on October 9th. That work carries an estimate of £7 million–£10 million ($9 million–$13 million).

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An Art Lover’s Guide to Athens https://ift.tt/4JroGqp

Change is afoot in Athens. The past decade has seen the city steadily building some serious cultural clout as artists are increasingly squeezed out of other European capitals and drawn, moth-like, to the glowing promise of more affordable rent and plenty of studio space in the city.

The story is a familiar one—but don’t call Athens the new Berlin. While both might be concrete jungles of post-war architecture, the charm of Athens comes down to its Mediterranean flair and pervasive sense of sunny chaos that feels a world apart from the German capital. “It is nothing like Berlin,” said Artemis Baltoyanni, founder of local gallery The Intermission. “But nowadays we do have a lot more art spaces showing both local and international artists. And a more diverse audience, too.”

With so much new creative energy stirring in the historic city, we’ve compiled a guide to the local art scene. These are the must-visit galleries, museums, public art installations, and art world haunts in Athens.

Athens galleries

Art world titans rub shoulders with DIY spaces in the Greek capital. The scene was afforded a huge boost when the 14th edition of Documenta descended in 2017, bringing with it a wave of global attention and an influx of international visitors. The event not only highlighted Athens as a significant cultural hub, but also catalyzed the growth of new galleries and artist-run spaces.

Downtown Athens

Clustered around the foot of the Acropolis are a series of neighborhoods with very different personalities. A stone’s throw from the tourist shops and ancient ruins of Monastiraki is gritty Metaxourgeio, an ex-industrial neighborhood hit particularly hard by urban decline in the wake of the financial crash. A short walk south will take you to Petralona, a leafy residential neighborhood with a growing number of excellent restaurants and bars leading the reinvigoration of the Athenian drinking and dining scene. A wander across these adjoining areas will take you between plenty of art spaces occupying everything from grand Neoclassical townhouses to former factories and workshops.

• The Breeder: Housed in a converted ice cream factory, The Breeder has gained international acclaim for exhibitions that distill the brightest and best of the Athenian art scene. The gallery’s roster includes the likes of Aristeidis Lappas and Theo Triantafyllidis.
• Melas Martinos:In this luminous top-floor space overlooking the Parthenon, curator Andreas Melas showcases contemporary and 20th-century works from Greek creatives alongside international artists such as Ken Price and Nuri Koerfer.

• Rebecca Camhi: Founded in 1995, Rebecca Camhi is housed in a stately, Neoclassical townhouse in Metaxourgeio and has exhibited work by artists ranging from Nobuyoshi Araki to Sylvie Fleury, as well as a mix of young, local talent.
• Alkinois: Curator Alix Janta-Polczynski’s gallery in a former furniture workshop in Petralona runs an artist residency that invites international artists to come and make work within the space. Alumni of the program include Faye Wei Wei and Marco Villard.

Kolonaki

Kolonaki is Athens at its most upscale. But it’s far from flashy; there’s a sense of old-school charm here amid grand apartment blocks, Neoclassical mansions, and tree-lined boulevards nestled into the southern slope of Lycabettus Hill. The art scene here is more established, generally catering more to the tastes of well-heeled Athenians than other, more experimental galleries found elsewhere in the city.

• Gagosian: Art world behemoth Larry Gagosian has 19 galleries worldwide. His Athenian outpost is housed in a stately villa on the corner of a leafy Kolonaki square and showcases work from his international roster of big-hitters.
• Michael Werner Gallery:Earlier this year, Athens joined Berlin, New York, London, and Los Angeles in becoming home to an outpost of Michael Werner Gallery. Its opening was marked with a show featuring gallery artists Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke, and others.

Piraeus

Piraeus might technically be a separate city from Athens, but you wouldn’t know it. Urban overspill means the two have merged over the years. Today, it feels more like a suburb than a separate entity. In any case, it’s only a 15-minute drive (or a few metro stops) between the center of Athens and the port of Piraeus. It’s one of the busiest ports in Europe, with a maritime legacy that stretches back thousands of years.

Recent years have seen Piraeus building its cultural heft. An array of galleries have sprung up there, particularly in the warehouses and ex-industrial buildings that fill the portside neighborhood of Agios Dionysios.

• Sylvia Kouvali: Curator Sylvia Kouvali has two galleries: one in London’s Mayfair neighborhood and the other in a former warehouse in the heart of Piraeus. Previously called Rodeo, the gallery hosts exhibitions featuring underrecognized artists, many from the eastern Mediterranean.
• The Intermission: Art advisor Artemis Baltoyanni opened her project space, The Intermission, in a former car workshop in 2019. Rather than having her own roster, Baltoyanni partners with other galleries to present shows by their artists—often giving these artists their first presentations in Greece. Past collaborators include Chapter NY and Paris’s Fitzpatrick Gallery.
• Carwan Gallery: This contemporary design gallery was founded in Beirut in 2011, and moved to Piraeus in 2020. Its shows focus largely on conceptual pieces from Western Asia and across the Mediterranean.

Kypseli

Kypseli takes its name from the Greek word for “beehive”—a fitting description for this buzzy, urban warren. Much of the area was constructed during the mid–20th century, when wealthy residents flocked there to live in freshly constructed apartment blocks. But towards the end of the century, they had all but abandoned the neighborhood in favor of leafy suburban living. What followed was a spiral of urban decline, intensified even further by the financial crisis around 2007.

The last decade, however, has seen a string of initiatives reinvigorate the neighborhood. Low rents and plenty of empty spaces have also helped draw in the creative crowd, and Kypseli is today brimming with studios and galleries. Here, you can get a taste of everything up-and-coming in the Athenian scene.

• P.E.T. Projects: In addition to hosting exhibitions within the space, P.E.T. Projects founder Angelo Plessas uses his gallery for salon-like gatherings of curators and artists. Its name is a playful reference to Plessas’s love of animals, and his dog Alba is often spotted at the gallery with him. “I see it as a cultural shelter,” Plessas told Artsy. “The idea is to bring together people who are under the radar here in Greece.” An artist himself, Plessas has exhibited his own work in the space.
• Hot Wheels: This contemporary art space, located in a Neoclassical apartment overlooking Athens Polytechnic, was founded by British gallerists Hugo Wheeler and Julia Gardener, who opened a second location in London in 2023.
• Okay Space: Founded in 2022 by Stavros Kapetanios, Okay Space is housed in a former kafeneio (traditional coffee shop) and hosts shows that support the local scene by championing under-the-radar artists.

Public art in Athens

From majestic statues of notable statesmen to large-scale conceptual works from big-name Greek artists, the public artworks dotted around Athens point to different facets of the city’s storied past and vibrant present.

• Metro stations: In preparation for the opening of the Athenian metro in the early 2000s, prominent Greek artists were drafted in to create site-specific works to decorate the stations. Highlights include Yannis Gaïtis’s signature, bowler hat–wearing figures on the walls of Larissa station and colorful street scenes by Alekos Fassianos at Metaxourgeio.
• Extropic Optimisms: A series of technicolor neon symbols created by local artist Angelo Plessas (of P.E.T. Projects) adorn the wall of an apartment block near Victoria station. “They’re a mixture of Indigenous and ancient folk symbols, as well as some cybernetic iconography,” said Plessas, who worked with curator George Bekirakis and cultural organization Onassis Stegi on the piece. “They come together to represent all the different aspects of a human’s well-being.”
• Fontana Thesee: At the center of a fountain on Kotzia Square, opposite City Hall, sits a hulking, geometric piece created by Colombian artist Fernando Botero and his Greek wife, sculptor Sophia Vari. The sculpture is an abstract representation of the Greek hero Theseus.
• Memorial of National Reconciliation:Vassilis Doropoulos’s monumental 1989 statue features three bronze figures with their arms extended overhead and figures intertwined. It was conceived as a symbol of unity and healing after the Greek Civil War.

Athens museums

It comes as no surprise that Athens, the cradle of Western civilization, boasts various world-class museums offering a deep dive into the ancient world. But it’s not all marble and deities—there’s also a wide range of institutions showcasing a more contemporary and colorful side of Greek culture.

• Alekos Fassianos Museum: This new Metaxourgeio space dedicated to the late Alekos Fassianos, an artist known for his colorful paintings and lithographs inspired by Greek mythology and Athenian street life, opened in 2023.
• EMST (National Museum of Contemporary Art):Housed in a former 1950s brewery in Koukaki, the museum puts the spotlight on conceptual Greek art from the 20th century. Its collection includes works by Arte Povera master Jannis Kounellis and internationally acclaimed painter Vlassis Caniaris.

• Benaki Museum of Islamic Art: This extensive collection of artifacts from Islamic civilizations spans from the 7th to the 19th centuries and features exquisite ceramics, textiles, and manuscripts.
• National Archeological Museum: One of the world’s finest collections of ancient artifacts is housed in this Neoclassical landmark. Highlights include the golden mask of Agamemnon and the Artemision Bronze—a statue of Zeus recovered from the bottom of the sea.

Art world haunts

Athens is a village. Or at least, according to the creative community it is. The everybody-knows-everybody culture is fostered by the fact that downtown Athens isn’t enormous (don’t be fooled by the seemingly infinite sprawl of residential neighborhoods that spill out from the core). These restaurants, bars, and shops in particular have a magnetic pull on the arts crowd.

• Adad Books: In a pint-sized shop on the corner of leafy Merkouri square is Adad, a bookstore and cafe founded by Alix Janta-Polczynski (who runs the nearby gallery Alkinois). It’s a cozy spot to sip locally roasted coffee and browse titles from independent publishers.
• Pharaoh: This slick new restaurant and wine bar serves a particularly refined version of seasonally changing Greek cuisine, much of it prepared on charcoal grills or in wood-fired ovens. Local DJs are often on hand for live vinyl sets.

• Hyper Hypo: A wide variety of Greek and international titles are on offer at this art book and magazine shop. There’s also a regular program of in-store events and exhibitions, such as a pop-up from British photographer Martin Parr.
• Eprepe: Popular among Kypseli’s creative crowd, this buzzy bar offers an extensive natural wine list accompanied by a menu of small plates that put focus on fresh, seasonal Greek produce.
• Lsandsia:This self-described “new-age taverna” in downtown Athens is known for its stylish interiors and unfussy, contemporary menu. It serves hearty dishes like veal cheek stew and langoustine tagliatelle.

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