Displaying items by tag: private sales

Marc Porter has resigned his position as Chairman at Christie’s and will leave the company at the end of the year. Earlier this year, he stepped down as the head of Private Sales.

Porter is expected to join Sotheby’s some time in the next year (presuming he has a non-compete and it lasts roughly a year.) At the moment, Porter’s role at Sotheby’s has not been disclosed. But there’s a very good chance he will take a prominent position leading business development for the auction house.

Though the art market continues to post huge gains, six-month figures released by Christie’s today show at $4.5 billion a flat line and close to virtual tie for what the market leader firm achieved for the same period in 2014. That jumbo figure includes both auction and private sales, the latter contributing $515 million to the overall tally, substantially down from $828.2 million achieved for the same period in 2014.

For the fifth consecutive year, Christie’s has beaten the annual art sales record, clocking up £5.1 billion ($8.4 billion dollars) of sales during 2014, which is up 12 percent on 2013. The figure includes private (as opposed to public) sales of £916 million, and online only sales of £21.4 million. But the majority was for good old-fashioned public auction sales (up 10 per cent to £4.2 billion).

Of the many categories of sale Christie’s holds, the largest by far is for post-war and contemporary art, the driving engine of the auction market. Sales in this category at Christie’s rose by 33 per cent last year to £1.7 billion ($2.8 billion), accounting for an extraordinary 40.5 per cent of public auction sales.

The art market is still crackling. Christie's International PLC said Tuesday it sold $4.5 billion of fine and decorative art during the first half of the year, up 22% from the same period a year ago—and representing a record high for the privately held company based in London. Christie's total included $3.6 billion in auction sales and $828 million in privately brokered art sales. Its private sales were up 16% compared with the first half of 2013.

Rival Sotheby's said it auctioned $3.3 billion in art during the first half, up 29.4% from the year before. The New York-based auctioneer will release consolidated totals next month.

Heritage Auctions, which is based in Dallas, TX, has announced that they will be expanding their New York City office. The company has leased over 5,000-square-feet of additional space next to their current Park Avenue location. The expansion, which has tripled the auction house’s space in New York, will include an area for private sales, a showroom for exhibiting auction highlights, and a saleroom for small, on-site auctions. Heritage will continue to hold their larger sales at the Fletcher Sinclair mansion across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Heritage, which was established in 1976, is currently the largest auction house specializing in collectibles such as rare coins, civil war memorabilia, fine and rare wine, and rare books and manuscripts. The auction house brought in around $900 million in sales last year.

Sotheby’s has announced that they will be opening a gallery for private sales close to its London outpost on Bond Street. The gallery will be ideal for big-name collectors who prefer to do business through unpublicized sales rather than in the public auction arena.

Private sales have seen an uptick in recent years and unpublicized transactions increased at Sotheby’s by 11% in 2012. These inconspicuous sales accounted for $906.5 million of the $5.4 billion Sotheby’s brought in from auctions the same year. Most of Sotheby’s private sales come from big-ticket modern and contemporary works, which are sold when a buyer visits a viewing room within the auction house. Details surrounding these transactions are often kept under wraps. These private sales are also beneficial for the auction house because publicity costs are nonexistent.

Sotheby’s new gallery is expected to open in London during the fall of 2013.

Christie’s International announced that they will be closing their Haunch of Venison subsidiaries in New York and London in March 2013. The gallery in Chelsea will close after its exhibition, How to Tell the Future from the Past, ends its run on March 2. The London gallery, known as the Yard, will be converted to a permanent exhibition and sales space for Christie’s private sales department.

Founded by art dealers Harry Blain and Graham Southern in 2002, Haunch of Venison represents and exhibits the works of emerging and established contemporary artists. The gallery’s name comes from the London courtyard, Haunch of Venison Yard, where it was originally based. Christie’s bought the gallery, which had branches in London, Berlin, and New York, in 2007. Haunch of Venison’s Berlin branch closed in 2010, the same year Blain and Southern left Haunch to start a new gallery, BlainSouthern.

Christie’s decision to shutter the Haunch of Venison galleries came as private sales have been gaining ground for the auction house. The restructuring will focus the company’s attention on those private sales rather than working as a primary gallery representing artists. Haunch of Venison has also withdrawn from the upcoming European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht.

Christie’s announced this week that it has named Doug Woodham the president of Christie’s Americas. Woodham has spent the last 20 years working in finance, technology, and business, holding jobs at UBS Wealth Management and Moody’s KMV, an analytics company that helps capital markets and credit risk management professionals worldwide.

Christie’s former president, Marc Porter, is now the international head of private sales and will continue to serve as the chairman of Christie’s Americas. Woodham, who will report directly to Christie’s CEO Steven Murphy, will be responsible for the overall management of the company in the Americas.

Woodham’s art world experience includes a two-year stint as the co-chair of the American Fellows patron program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He played a pivotal role in developing a financial plan for funding the Whitney’s new building; a Renzo Piano designed the $750 million structure that will open in New York’s meatpacking district in 2015.