This hypothesis is considered the most plausible

Each year, in November, they give the "the" in the trend. Never as this season, the results of sales of modern and contemporary art in New York no will was also expected. But already, one thing is clear: the figures will be average, or bad. Of course, everything is not even black in the world of art and at the Fiac in Paris ("Les Echos" on October 24, 2008) recently, was heard at least a "Millionaire" result Dimitri Mavrommatis, a Greek in London, has acquired a painting by the Italian conceptual artist Lucio Fontana for 4 million. However, in New York, the depression seems larger than Paris. One of the sets that should sink the more ink, not by value but by its origin, is a group of 16 drawings mostly abstract classic American post-war, which belongs to Kathy Fuld, the wife of Richard Fuld, the Lehman Brothers ex-PDG! Clearly the art was not, for the couple, a subject of financial speculation. Works on paper by Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman and Agnes Martin purchased majority late 1990s are estimated in total at 14.7 million (EUR 11.36 million).

A cold wind of lucidity

More generally, the problem raised by the November auction, which mark the beginning of a new period, is that they were organized mainly during the summer and that at this time that trading in the modern and contemporary art was still flourishing. For number of lots that could not be renegotiated with buyers, estimated prices are significantly higher that what now seems reasonable in a financial context also deplorable. A cold lucidity, infrequent, wind now the trade of the art of the 20th century.

"The estimates are for another time, said Philippe Ségalot, French broker installed in New York. It is now up in contemporary art at price levels of two or three years ago, i.e. below 50. The most active buyers in recent years are in a position to wait. "His Franck Giraud associate, specialist, of modern art, goes further in his judgment:"It had lost the sense of reality." This crisis will help determine the tables according to rational criteria of quality. Prices will fall and the historic values will prevail. "The absolute star of this season is a rare constructivist of Malevich canvas painted in 1916 estimated EUR 60 million. Prior financial agreement appears to have been found for this painting. It guarantees, in a legal way but contrary to the set of the auction its transfer to its estimated height. Situation requires, the Russian oligarchs will probably absent. Unless they do use this opportunity to make a donation to the Russian State history to be appreciated by the authority. This hypothesis is considered the most plausible. The canvas that was long exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum is part of a group of five Malevich recovered by a Hunter of despoiled works, Clemens Toussaint, for a few months, seeking to sell whole, it seems, 300 million (EUR 232 million).

Adjustment of the values

Among the exceptional works, there is also a pastel of Degas who, in 1999, had been awarded for what remained, to date, a record price: 28 million (EUR 21.6 million). Sotheby's estimate for this new passage under the hammer of the auctioneer is so bold: 40 million (EUR 31 million). It belongs to the American financier Henry Kravis. At Christie's, the big part of the history of art is a Kandinsky painting dated 1909. An explosion of colors for a publication which tends towards abstraction. She was exposed until recently, at the Kunsthaus in Zurich. It is estimated 15 million (EUR 11.6 million). "I would have preferred that give a lower estimate to stir up the auction set." "We are in a period of readjustment of values," said Thomas Seydoux, at Christie's. Many experts expect on an average fall of prices by 25 in the field of modern art. At Sotheby's, Grégoire Billot makes the same observation: "we are working for these sales on tables which displayed values date back to before the crisis.". They are not good. "One of the lighthouses of the sale of Sotheby's contemporary art of lots is the work of French artist Yves Klein,"sponge Relief", kind of blue monochrome space representation dated 1961. A large-format work which has a time belonged to the Parisian antique dealer Jean-Marie Rossi. It is estimated at 25 million (EUR 19.3 million), or 1.5 million more than the historical record for Klein. The common practice of the auction houses to anticipate prices never achieved in the past should now have.