Art market holds, for now

Press, 23 November 1987, Page 12

Art market holds, for now

From the “Economist’s” New York correspondent

The world’s stockmarkets may have collapsed but in the art markets the greater fool theory still holds. An auction held by Sotheby’s in New York on November 11 made art history when Vincent Van Gogh’s Irises sold for SUSS3.9M. The sum (which includes a 10 per cent commission for Sotheby’s) is a record for a work of art sold at auction, beating the £24.7M (SUS4O million) paid for the same artist’s Sunflowers by Yasuda, a Japanese life Insurance company, earlier this year. It also represents a fantastic

capital gain for the philanthropist seller, Mr John Whitney Payson, whose mother bought the painting in 1947 for $84,000 — less than million in today’s money. Although Sotheby’s would only say that the buyer was a “European agent for an anonymous collector,’’ it is widely assumed that it was again a Japanese. They adore both Van Gogh and Irises, and have lots of money. In the Sunflowers’ sale the defeated bidder was Mr Alan Bond, an Australian businessman who now has less money than before. The Irises sale comfortably

beat art-world estimates of between SUS2O million and SUS3S million. The last SUS2O million of bidding was done by telephone by two anonymous bidders leapfrogging each other SUSI million at a time. Salivating Sotheby's spokesmen were quick to announce that it was “obvious" that the art marker is alive and well. However, not every painting sold; works by Cezanne, Monet and Picasso all failed to meet their reserve price, though another Monet went for a record SUSS.B million. Copyright—The Economist