Su Fu'S First Auction Of $63.2 Billion

On June 30, Beijing time, Sotheby's Impressionism, modern art and contemporary art night auction was held for the first time in the form of online live broadcast, linking New York, London and Hong Kong. After five hours of fierce fighting, the auction ended successfully with a total transaction price of US $363.2 million (about RMB 2.564 billion), and also set a number of individual auction records of artists. Although people's willingness to consume decreased during the epidemic period, the secondary art market was "immune" and resilient, which boosted the confidence of global buyers through a new online auction mode.

Sotheby's first large-scale "cloud auction" linked New York, London and Hong Kong at the same time. Data map

Live auction technology

Oliver Baker, chairman and auctioneer of Sotheby's Europe, is in a straight suit, facing eight giant screens like the central control room. The words "the auction of the future is here" flashed across the screen. He knew that the auction tonight was different from any one he had ever hosted. On the screen, real-time data of auction agents and online bidding in live studios in New York, London and Hong Kong are projected. After the whole live broadcast, the quotation, bidding, hammering and transaction are completed. The picture is clear and smooth, and it brings the audience a first experience of global multimedia real-time interaction. Even Oliver Barker couldn't help exclaiming, "standing on the auction floor is like being in a movie scene."

The transaction data of this auction also live up to the strong technical support. The auction started with the collection of the late american philanthropist Ginny Williams, followed by Sotheby's contemporary art auction, Impressionism auction and modern art auction. The estimated total price of the three auctions was between $262.1 million and $368.4 million. The final harvest of $363.2 million was within the valuation range, even lower than the $691.9 million harvested at the Sotheby's Impressionist, modern and Contemporary Art Evening physical auction in New York in May last year. However, considering the high quality and strong bidding intensity of the auction on the cloud, this data is also enough to send an optimistic signal to the market. A total of 69 pieces were shot in the three special scenes, with a total turnover rate of 93%. Only five pieces of works were not successfully sold. It is worth mentioning that 18 pieces of Ginny Williams' special show achieved a 100% success rate, with a total of $65.5 million.

Affected by the epidemic, sellers and buyers have been cautious in recent months. According to artnet, cancellations and postponements in May alone led to a 95% drop in average sales at auction houses compared with the same period last year. As a supplementary form of offline auction, the brilliant report card proves the feasibility of the new hybrid auction mode, and it also gives Sotheby's relief for the first large-scale trial of live auction. Cheng Shoukang, chief executive of Sotheby's Asia region, explained in an interview with the artist that Sotheby's has been committed to developing online bidding, electronic catalogues and online interactive information in recent years, which has greatly improved the adaptability of experts and customers to the application of modern technology. Therefore, the innovative hybrid auction mode, which combines the traditional live auction with the current market needs, is generally acceptable to both buyers and sellers.

Record high prices

The success of an auction usually depends on how many lots can reach the seven to eight figure dollar auction price. As far as the results of this auction are concerned, many high-quality masterpieces have withstood the test. In addition, due to the high quality of the auction, many works of art were collected by well-known collectors for decades before they were released for the first time. Therefore, before the bidding, many of the auction pieces had been guaranteed by the third-party guarantee mode, and the pre-sale guarantee of "irrecoverable bidding" was carried out (that is, once the auction failed, the off-site third-party buyers must buy them at the price guaranteed before the auction This work).

From the successful auction of works of art, it can be seen that most of the most easily traded items have the three conditions of popularity, reasonable price and short supply. The most brilliant work in this auction is Francis Bacon's "inspired by eschler orestia". The work has been on display in a private museum in Oslo, Norway, since 1993. However, the museum has been trying to negotiate for the sale of the triptych for more than $100 million, with repeated failures. But at Sotheby's auction, with a more approachable $60 million valuation, the work prompted a Chinese online bidder to spend more than 10 minutes fighting with other bidders. In the end, however, the Chinese bidder lost $73.1 million to $84.6 million (about 598 million yuan) put forward by the client represented by Gr é goire billault, Sotheby's New York contemporary art director, making it the third highest price in the history of the artist's auction.

"Inspired by eschler's orestia trilogy.". Information map

In addition, eight works of art have sold for a record of the artist's personal auction. Among them, Jean Michel Basquiat's Untitled (head) (1982) did not live up to expectations. The work sold for us $15.2 million, setting a new world auction record for artists' personal paper works, and breaking the highest auction price in Sotheby's online auction history.

The real of appearances (2018), a work by the late Chinese Canadian painter Matthew Wong, was estimated at US $60000 to US $80000 before auction. However, after a fierce telephone bidding on the two sides of the live broadcasting rooms in Hong Kong and New York, the price of the hammer was finally dropped by US $1.8 million, 18 times higher than the previous highest estimate, and broke its historical highest auction price of $62500.

Royal Fireworks (1975), a work by the late American abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler, cost $7.9 million in Ginny Williams' special show, and the final transaction price nearly doubled the estimated price of $2 million. It broke the transaction price of US $3 million in Sotheby's Contemporary Art Day Auction in May 2018.

The "OMI obini" by Cuban modernist painter Wifredo lam in 1943 sold for 9.6 million US dollars, which became the second highest price in the history of Sotheby's Impressionism and modern art auction, second only to Picasso's "t ê Ted femme endrmie" with a price of 11.2 million US dollars. In addition, the late Chilean artist Mario Carre ó O's "cortadores de Ca ó a" in 1943 sold for $2.7 million, slightly surpassing his $2.6 million auction record. Vija celmins's large-scale oil painting night sky 7 was recently exhibited in a retrospective exhibition of Latvian American artists at the Metropolitan Museum of art. Although it did not reach the high price of 8 million US dollars expected by Sotheby's valuation experts, it still exceeded the artist's previous auction record of $4.2 million and sold for $6.6 million.

The Impressionist and modern art shows also continued the market trend that female artists were warmly sought after by buyers. The Surrealist female artists Leonor fini and Remedios varo broke their own individual auction records, and their seven works totaled 13.7 million US dollars, highlighting the re evaluation of the surrealism movement's contribution to women.

By contrast, more aesthetically challenging works are almost impossible to sell. For example, clyford still is one of the most important figures in American Abstract Expressionism. Artists donate almost all their life-long works to museums, so they rarely circulate in the market. Despite being such a master, his masterpiece ph-144 (1947-y-no.1) finally attracted only one bidder in the auction, which was won by an American collector with a minimum valuation of $25 million.

What is the future of cloud auction

Compared with the traditional auction, online auction is simpler, cheaper and easier to manage, which is a very important supplementary form of offline auction.

From the market point of view, the purchasing potential of buyers around the world is still huge. However, the key to the long-term and in-depth development of "cloud auction" is to establish customers' trust in online platforms. The high-end art market has always relied heavily on on on-site sales and on-site viewing, so the revenue from online auction in the past only accounted for a small part. Take Sotheby's annual total revenue of $4.8 billion in 2019 as an example, the online sales only accounted for $80 million, or 1.6%. "Things have changed since this auction, and we see buyers more confident in online auctions," guy Jennings, managing director of fine art group, a London art consultancy, told the New York Times. In the past online auctions, the bidding ceiling was around several hundred thousand dollars. " Sotheby also revealed that nearly a third of new customers in the past year have been converted from online bidders. The audience participating in the online live auction is five times of the average number of people participating in the offline night auction activities in the past. A number of record breaking auction prices also show that there is still interest in high-quality and rare blue chip art in the context of the global economic downturn. Wendy Cromwell, an art consultant in New York, told the New York Times: "at a time when auction sales are falling all over the world, there is still a lot of money pouring into the auction industry to compete for the rarest assets. This is because there is a disconnect between the people affected by the epidemic and those who are immune to the epidemic, and there is still a lot of pent up demand."

Sotheby's may be the first auction house to broadcast a large auction, but we know it's not the last.