International Art Sales Now Big Business

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31678, 14 May 1968, Page 22

International Art Sales Now Big Business

(London corregpondefit)

LONDON, April 30.

A love of art for art’s sake is no doubt real enough among the collectors of the world. But in London, the recognised centre of international art sales, Old Masters—and even the new masters —are also mighty big business.

In the last 20 years, the value of paintings as an investment has climbed to extraordinary heights. One authority calculated the other day that a man who, in 1948, invested £50,000 in works of art could reasonably expect them to be worth £400,000 today.

Such an appreciation would be far more than he would have gained from the more conventional investments, such as Government stock or even company shares. Only property investment would probably have produced a better return. Yet even these assessments of the growth in value of works of art are now being revised among the experts in London, because in recent auction sales the bidding has soared well above expectations.

A notable instance was the sale at Sotheby’s the other day of an early Picasso, “La Pointe de la Cite.” It was expected to fetch perhaps £70,000. In fact it was sold for £125.000. The sale of 24 other Picassos, including some very recent drawings, made the total realisation £517,000. This was a special sale because, for the first time, it was presented by the 8.8. C. in colour television. Thus,

millions of people were able to watch the bidders, both private collectors and representatives of the great galleries, in action. It was fascinating stuff, not least because of the way in which the buyers, so tense and alert during the actual bidding, relaxed into almost childlike delight once the hammer had fallen. Every one seemed to think the purchase was a bargain.

It gave a very human aspect to the spectacle of these outward’y urbane people, experts all, spending their tens of thousands with a slight raise of the eyebrows or a scarcely discernible movement of a finger.

The sale was all the more interesting because Picasso, at 80. is not only still living but is still painting and drawing. Normally, it is long after the death of the artist that his works can command prices on this scale. Six months ago. for Instance, a painting by Claude

Monet, “La Terrasse a Sainte Adresse," fetched a world record price of 560,000 guineas in an auction at Christies. The artist, penniless, sold it a hundred years earlier for £l7.

The seller, the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, of Pennsylvania, had bought the painting in New York, in 1926, for about £4OOO.

That sale was very much a triumph for Christies, but Sotheby’s, founded in 1744, is unquestionably the leading fine-art auction house. Sotheby's turnover for the 1966-67 season was a world record at £13,500,000. With the total from the affiliated house of Parke-Bernet, New York, the combined turnover was £2O million.

The sale of paintings and sculpture made the largest contribution, but books, fur-

WlNDSOR.— Australian Stableford—Senior: R Burrell. S» points; H. Capps. 38. Intermediate: L. R. Cant. 39: D. Sherry. 38. Junior: J. Cocks, 43; E. Vincent, 43; N. Smith. 41. Novice: T. Browman. 44: R. White. 41. Men's stableford: A. A. Caithness. 38: N. J. Cook. 37. Men's four-ball best-ball stableford: R. Keall and G. Fielding, 43; C. J. Hogwood and G. Bagot. 41. Mixed four-ball best-ball stableford: C. J. Macdonald and Mrs Macdonald. 43: J. Stewart and Mrs Stewart, 42.

niture and jewellery to the value of many millions of pounds are also sold by Sotheby’s every year. The photograph shows the scene at the auction at Sotheby’s on April 24, when 25 Picassos, examples both of his early and very recent work, were sold for a total of £517,000. The picture here on offer, “Femme couches au Chat,” was sold for £28,000.