In partnership with MS Gifts, The Fine Art Group’s Philanthropic Strategy Team assists families with creating legacy by collaborating with philanthropic planning advisors and executing effective sales strategy.
Jack Charles Davis was a prominent attorney and philanthropist dedicated to promoting the economic and community development of his hometown, Lansing, Michigan. He was also a passionate book collector and voracious reader.
After Davis passed in 2020, his family sought to honor his history of charitable work by leveraging his extensive collection of iconic and valuable books and manuscripts.
The Jack Charles Davis collection sale with Hindman auctions includes an extensive library of literature acquired over a lifetime. The proceeds of the sale will benefit several regional charities important to Davis and his family.
Click here to view the collection and to register for bidding.
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Offering expert Advisory across sectors, our dedicated Advisory, Sales Agency, and Philanthropic Strategy teams combine strategic insight with transparent advice to guide our clients seamlessly through the market. We always welcome the opportunity to discuss our strategies and services in depth.
MASTERWORKS FROM THE ALANA COLLECTION
The Fine Art Group is delighted to announce Old Masters | New Perspectives: Masterworks from the Alana Collection, to be sold with Christie’s New York on June 9, 2022. This selection is one of the most important collections of Italian Old Master Paintings, Sculptures, and Antiquities to ever be offered at auction.
The Fine Art Group is honored to advise our client, a world-renowned collector and his family, in the sale of this extraordinary group of masterworks, refining the public offering to maximize return through selective curation, sales management and marketing optimization. Assembled with great expertise and passion over decades, the Alana Collection’s Gothic, Italian Renaissance, and Baroque paintings comprehensively tell the history of Italian art and have gained international renown following the acclaimed 2019-2020 exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris. Masterpieces by Fra Angelico, El Greco, Orazio Gentileschi and Lorenzo Monaco will be offered alongside important antiquities, rare sculpture, and spectacular jewelry.
The auction comprises over 50 outstanding works that will be sold in a single owner live auction taking place at Rockefeller Center on June 9, 2022, after completing a global tour alongside Impressionist, Modern, and Post-War highlights to London, Hong Kong, New York, and Los Angeles. Proceeds from the sale will benefit a charitable organization that focuses on arts and education. In total, the sale of these works is expected to fetch $30 million – 50 million.
Please contact our team for opportunities to preview the collection.
GLOBAL TOUR
- London: April 5-8
- Hong Kong: April 20-21
- New York: April 29-May 11
- Los Angeles: May 24-26
PRE-SALE EXHIBITION
- New York: June 3-8
AUCTION DATE
- New York: June 9
Chief Executive Philip Hoffman comments, “In recent years, The Fine Art Group has ably assisted families shape their collections for the next generation, such as the ‘white glove’ sale for prominent Saudi collector Walid Juffali at Bonhams in 2018, as well as assisting distinguished collectors to refine their extensive holdings for their next phase of collecting, such as the extraordinary Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence auction – a collection of $110 million of jewelry sold at Christie’s in 2019. Masterworks from the Alana Collection is a fantastic example of these two streams coming together and my global team and I are delighted to be working on behalf of the family, and alongside the team at Christie’s again, to bring a carefully curated selection of works from the wider collection to market.”
Bonnie Brennan, Christie’s President of Americas, comments, “It is an honor to partner with The Fine Art Group to present this once in a generation collection with some of the finest works of their kind to ever come on the public market. The profound quality and breadth of these works stand as a testament of the supreme care and vision that guided the formation of the Alana Collection. We are especially excited to debut these works alongside 20th and 21st century masterpieces, creating a dialogue across the entirety of history.”
OUR SERVICES
Offering expert Advisory across sectors, our dedicated Advisory and Sales Agency teams combine strategic insight with transparent advice to guide our clients seamlessly through the market. We always welcome the opportunity to discuss our strategies and services in depth.
Image 1: Orazio Gentileschi, The Madonna and Child, courtesy of Christie’s
PRESENT FOCUS: ART FINANCE DEBUNKED
Talking Galleries New York in partnership with Schwartzman& Artand_Media Podcast with Loring Randolph
MONDAY, April 4th, 2022 – 2:30 to 3:45PM EST
Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
The panel “Focus: Art Finance Debunked” will bring together art experts Jan Prasens, Deputy Chairman of The Fine Art Group, Noah Horowitz, Worldwide Head of Gallery & Private Dealer Services of Sotheby’s, and Suzanne Gyorgy, Managing Director and Head of Citibank Private Art Advisory & Finance, in conversation with Melanie Gerlis of the Financial Times to debate art lending and the use of art as collateral.
Are there opportunities for lending against the inventory of mid-level galleries? How do we expand innovative applications of art lending?
Tickets may be purchased by following this link.
FURTHER READING
- The Asking Price: Understanding Value 1
- Are You a Tangible Asset Fiduciary? Topic #1
- Philip Hoffman and Freya Stewart Named Top Professionals in Art Advisory and Art Finance
Bringing Together the Complementary Skills and Resources of The Fine Art Group and Schwartzman&
New York & London – March 31, 2022:
Allan Schwartzman and Philip Hoffman, principals of Schwartzman& and The Fine Art Group, respectively, today announced plans to collaborate on key business initiatives to provide enhanced advisory services to existing and future clients. By leveraging the complementary skills and resources of their two firms, Allan and Philip will be uniquely positioned to address the needs of an ever changing market for both multigenerational and emerging collectors, in addition to artists and institutions. Specific areas of collaboration will include services ranging from valuations and collection development to investment opportunities and philanthropic giving, among others.
Allan Schwartzman commented, “What may appear as an unlikely alliance is born from mutual respect and shared values. Rather than exist as competitors, Philip and I recognize the unique opportunity that we can create for our clients and the broader market. Philip has spent decades building a specific set of skills and experience that I don’t currently offer in-house. Additionally, given the size and scope of his firm, he engages with a pool of clients that I may not necessarily encounter. Together, we can be a more meaningful resource for our respective clients.”
“As a curator and thought leader, Allan has built a unique space and reputation in the art world,” said Philip Hoffman. “His strategic vision is sought after by some of the most esteemed collectors, artists and institutions in the world. Adding his expertise and experience to even a handful of opportunities, while we each maintain our independence and separate businesses, allows us to do something truly unique in the marketplace. And as our firm has recently expanded our presence in the United States, this alliance with Allan and his team is perfectly timed. We both believe deeply in the future of collecting, and together we have the collective knowledge and resources to address not only today’s market but to help shape the future.”
Over three decades, Allan and Philip have distinguished themselves and built successful businesses serving clients across all aspects of the art world. Beginning his career as a curator and a founding staff member of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, Allan has guided the formation of private and public collections, executed legacy and market development strategies for artists (including estates and foundations), and formulated cultural development plans for civic projects – services now part of his firm, Schwartzman&. Philip began his career in the financial services industry before joining Christie’s and rising to the level of the Deputy CEO of Europe. He then spent 20 years, building his firm, The Fine Art Group, into an international market leader in art investment, art finance and art advisory that operates in six countries.
The idea of a potential collaboration between the two firms gathered steam when Jan Prasens was appointed Deputy Chairman of The Fine Art Group in September 2021. During his more than two decades at Sotheby’s, Jan worked closely with Allan Schwartzman and was eager to explore ways to work together. While the collaboration does not include any financial investment or ownership stake in each other’s firms, The Fine Art Group’s New York-based team will share space with Schwartzman& in their West 22nd Street offices in Chelsea.
ABOUT SCHWARTZMAN&
Headquartered in the Dia Art Foundation building in New York, Schwartzman& offers comprehensive advisory services to the full spectrum of individuals and organizations, private and public, involved in forming, assessing, or rethinking the possibilities of art collections. The team of sixteen brings expertise from all aspects of the art world including galleries, museums, auction houses, artist studios and foundations. As part of an ongoing commitment to foster a dialogue around developments in the rapidly changing world of art, Schwartzman& is pleased to help bring the art world symposium Talking Galleries to New York on April 4 & 5, 2022. The event will bring together museum directors, gallerists, curators, artists, scholars, journalists, non-profit leaders, auction houses and art fair executives to tackle the significant issues facing the art world today. Schwartzman& also recently debuted the podcast Hope & Dread in collaboration with Charlotte Burns. The documentary series examines recent clashes of power in culture with interviews by more than 30 guests, from artists to museum directors, philanthropists to politicians.
ABOUT THE FINE ART GROUP
Recently marking its 20th anniversary, The Fine Art Group is an independent global team of nearly 60 advisors and art finance experts committed to supporting clients across all collector markets through its five core service offerings: Advisory, Art Finance, Sales Agency, Investment, and Appraisals. From asset-secured loans and consignment management to their position as the world’s leading art investment house, The Fine Art Group offers a unique set of services and expertise in today’s art world with locations in London, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Dubai. The acquisition of Pall Mall Art Advisors in 2021 brought even greater depth and wider global reach, with in-house expertise now spanning Western Art from 1500 to the present day, as well as fine jewelry, watches and valuable collectibles, and a trusted network of vetted consultants for bespoke category insight.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Schwartzman&: Tommy Napier, tommy.napier@finnpartners.com
The Fine Art Group: Daryl Boling, darylboling@fineartgroup.com
Click here to download the full press release.
Henry Little, Director of Art Advisory, has contributed to Phaidon’s latest book, PRIME: Art’s Next Generation. With ultra-contemporary artists breaking onto the scene with unprecedented force, PRIME is a timely survey of over 100 innovative artists working across the globe.
Henry had the honor of nominating several of these artists as well as providing texts for Harold Ancat, Rachel Maclean, and Loie Hollowell.
Congratulations to Henry for being part of an amazing and insightful book!
Available now from Phaidon and other good book stores.
FURTHER READING
- The Asking Price: Understanding Value 1
- Henry Little: The State of the Art Market at Themerode
- Great Women Artists
Art and collectibles are an alternative asset class that has garnered a lot of interest in recent years. Uncorrelated to the stock market, these investments are attractive to those looking to hedge against crashes and volatility. They’re also more personal than stocks and easier to get passionate about—especially when they’re posting record-breaking returns.
If you were unable to attend our latest roundtable event you may now watch the recording below.
TOPICS DISCUSSED
- Using collections as a diversification tool
- Providing liquidity & cash flow by leveraging collections
- Identifying emerging artists and underrepresented artists
PANELISTS
FURTHER READING
- Watch TFG’s New York Luxury Week 2023 Webinar
- Watch How to Utilize Your Collections as a Hedge Against Inflation
- Watch The Educated Eye: How to Navigate a Multi-Category Collection at Auction
Header image credit: Kehinde Wiley, Prince Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria, 2013, courtesy of the Hedy Fischer and Randy Shull art collection
Reflecting on current circumstances, the underlying resilience and adaptability of the occasionally archaic art market has surprised even the most ebullient optimists. Twelve months ago, stringent and interminable lockdowns were in force across the majority of art market centers. Mass vaccine rollouts still lay in the future, museum collections were gathering dust, and most of us had not yet heard of an NFT.
What a difference a year makes. At times the rate of change has felt dizzying. In the same way many of us participated in the pandemic as armchair epidemiologists, the art world at large has become au fait with non-fungible-tokens in their plurality at pace, with widespread adoption across the auction, commercial gallery and museum sectors. Likewise, it seems as though every commercial player in the market ‘big and small’ has embraced digital channels as the primary means of reaching new and existing buyers. Entire swathes of the gallery sector have been busy replacing outdated retrograde websites with flashy new platforms offering e-commerce, video content, online viewing rooms and virtual exhibition tours.
While the digital realm inevitably came to define our collective experience of the market in 2021, art fairs, auctions and exhibitions have increasingly been held ‘IRL’ (in real life), with some semblance of pre-pandemic life emerging in a new guise from the nebulous ruins of the 2019 art market calendar. More than ever, the art market has found itself to be remarkably adaptable.
TEN ART MARKET PREDICTIONS FOR 2022
1. Global auction sales will fall below 2021 results by value.
2. Private sales at the major auction houses will surpass 2021 results.
3. A price correction will manifest in the ultra-contemporary auction category (artists born after 1974).
4. Los Angeles, Seoul and New York will see the largest number of new gallery spaces opening in 2022 (whether for new or existing businesses).
5. Significant disruption will continue in the art fair sector throughout 2022; we may hope and expect that 2023 will be the first full year of uninterrupted scheduling since the onset of the pandemic.
6. NFTs will remain prominent in top tier auction house sales, with major investment in standalone departments destined to take their place alongside the more established departments in terms of revenue, visibility and prestige.
7. NFTs will achieve comparable global auction sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips, without a single auction lot surpassing the result of Beeple’s EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5,000 DAYS (2021).
8. Professionals from the traditional fine art market, especially auction houses, will migrate to dedicated NFT businesses.
9. Several high profile NFT start-ups in the fine art market will close as quickly as they opened.
10. One digitally native NFT company will open a permanent physical presence in a major art market hub before the end of the year, aiming to provide some of the experiential, real world trappings of the traditional fine art business.
Image 2: Courtesy of KÖNIG SEOUL; Image 3: Courtesy of Christie’s
“The proportion of Russian (art) buying has diminished since most so-called oligarchs made their collections between 2000 and 2015.”
Senior Director Guy Jennings speaks to Melanie Gerlis at The Financial Times to discuss the impact of the UK government’s decision to ban art exports to Russia on the current art market.
To read the article in full please click here or read on The Financial Times.
The Fine Art Group is pleased to announce Senior Appraiser and Advisor Kimberly Hong is now overseeing their expansion into Denver, Colorado, and the mountain region.
Denver is one of the fastest growing cities in America, increasing its population by over 20% in the last decade. Its beauty is attracting high-net-worth families seeking exceptional quality of life for both primary and secondary residences. As an independent, global team of art advisors and art finance experts, this expansion allows The Fine Art Group’s experienced team to continue guiding clients through all collector markets and our five core services:
Advisory, Art Finance, Sales Agency, Investment & Appraisals
Kimberly Hong will serve as Regional Representative providing access to our experienced team of appraisers and advisors who maintain the highest levels of accessibility, transparency and trust for clients located in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
Founded over 20 years ago, The Fine Art Group has established an unrivaled track record across the art ecosystem. From first acquisitions and building collections, through to appraisals and art financing, we offer clients an experienced and skillful hand – helping to navigate the opacities of the market.
Kimberly Hong is a Senior Appraiser and Advisor for The Fine Art Group. Prior to working in the field of appraisals, she worked in the auction industry as Director of Consignments at Ahlers & Ogletree Auction Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia and as a cataloguer at Jackson’s International Auctioneers and Appraisers in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Kim holds a B.A. in Art History and Communication from Saint Louis University. Hong earned her M.A. in Art History from the University of Oregon. Kimberly is a member of the International Society of Appraisers and serves on their Antiques, Furnishings, and Decorative Arts Committee. She recently earned an Applied Jewelry Professional diploma from the Gemological Institute of America.
The first round of 2022’s marquee evening sales took place in London last week with significant results. Sales totals from all three houses reached just over £400 million ($525 million), above 2019 pre-pandemic levels for the same period.
The ongoing crisis in Ukraine created an understandably strained atmosphere for all houses but the auctions continued with consummate professionalism. Phillips, owned by the Russian company The Mercury Group, especially came under fire, despite having no financial links to any of the sanctions imposed on Russian businesses. In response, Phillips donated all vendor’s commissions and buyer’s premium from their evening sale, totalling £5.8 million ($7.7 million), to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. Christie’s made an announcement later in the week that they too would make a significant donation to the Red Cross efforts in Ukraine.
The top prices of the week were for Franz Marc’s recently restituted painting The Foxes (Die Füchse) (1913) which sold for a record £42.6 million ($56.8 million) premium. There was also a new record for René Magritte at Sotheby’s; L’empire des lumières (1961) sold for £59.4 million ($79.4 million) premium, almost tripling the artist’s previous record. Both works carried a guarantee, as did most top priced lots in the sales, including Francis Bacon’s Triptych (1986-87), which sold at Christie’s to the guarantor for £38.5 million ($51.2 million) premium. Guarantees accounted for about 64% of the overall sales total across the houses, with the total low estimates of guaranteed lots around £257 million ($337 million). This resulted in £249 million ($327 million) in guaranteed actual sales, signalling how crucial guarantees are in the current business, in terms of winning consignments as well as ensuring a high sell through rates for the overall sales figures.
A slew of auction records were achieved for works from the newly coined ‘ultra-contemporary’ category, with new record prices set for Issy Wood, Shara Hughes, Flora Yukhnovich and Hilary Pecis, among others. This became the fastest growing auction category of 2021 and looks set to continue a strong trajectory for 2022. Two sales predominantly offered works from this category: Christie’s Shanghai Evening sale and Sotheby’s New Now Evening sale. 70% and 55% of their lots respectively sold above estimate, compared to around 25-30% in the Modern and Contemporary sales. The result for Rachel Jones who had her debut at Sotheby’s, selling for £617,400 ($828,600) premium against an estimate of just £50,000 – 70,000, felt particularly illustrative of the momentum in this area of the market.
Despite some very strong performances, a few disappointing results indicated that with secondary market supply increasing for some of these ‘hot’ artists, buyers are becoming somewhat selective about the lots they chase, as well as perhaps a waning appetite for the new price levels of these popular names. Amoako Boafo had four works at auction during the week, two of which sold on or below their low estimate. A work by one of the breakout stars of 2021, Salman Toor, was withdrawn from the Christie’s day sale, another in the Phillips day sale sold for one bid above the low estimate. While in no way does this indicate a slowing down of these artist’s markets (the works by Boafo that did sell well are now the second and third highest prices at auction) it suggests increasing selectivity as well as a possible plateau in terms of price points for these names that have on many occasions in the past twelve months far exceeded their estimates.
Another noticeable shift was a softening in demand for works by Banksy. With a total of ten works on offer across Phillips, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, at various price points, buyers could be discerning with the works they bid on. Together the works had a presale estimate of £14 – 21 million ($18 – 26 million) and the hammer total was just £7.5 million ($9.8 million). Four top priced pieces either went unsold or were withdrawn, significantly affecting the artist’s sales total for the week.
Despite the noticeable contrast in bidding between the ultra-contemporary and post-war and modern categories, this is not reflective of the latter’s slowing market. Their estimates represent very different price points, and, in some instances, several the highly priced lots were accompanied by estimates at the mid to top end of the artist’s market, which accordingly limits the amount of action and live bidding in the room. A number of these lots sold on one or two bids. Works that the market felt were under-priced, for example Peter Doig’s Some Houses on Iron Hill (1992), estimated at £600,000 – 800,000, were chased by buyers, with the work selling for £2.4 million ($3.3 million) premium.
Ultimately, despite the various categories performing at different levels, major auction records were achieved in both the modern and next generation contemporary segments. The exceptional sell through rates of all the auctions, ranging from 88% to 95%, is further testament to the overall strength of the market which proved resilient during a difficult week.