Art's Middling Start

All eyes were on Sotheby's last night, as the art world sought to get a handle on just how battered the art market will be by the global credit crisis and economic downturn.

The results of Sotheby's Impressionist and modern art evening sale, the first of the fall auctions in New York: worse than hoped, but better than feared.

Just 64 percent of the 70 lots found buyers last night, for a sales total of $223.8 million, well below the house's estimate of $337 million to $475 million. While last's night's auction drew the lowest sales rate for an Impressionist evening sale at Sotheby's since May 2001, it may have been a pleasant surprise to collectors who feared parallels to the art market crash of the early 1990s.

Kazimir Malevich's geometric 1916 "Suprematist Composition'' was the star of last night's auction, selling for a record $60 million. Edvard Munch's 1894 "Vampire" sold for $38.2 million, breaking auction records for the artist and exceeding pre-sale estimates. Edgar Degas' "Danseuse au repos," sold by financier Henry Kravis, made $37 million--a record for the artist, but still below estimates of $40 million.

Plenty of lots did not find bidders, including still lifes by Picasso and Matisse, a Van Gogh painting estimated at $10 million, a Monet painting estimated at $16 million, and a Modigliani painting estimated at up to $25 million.

Even before last night's auction, there were early signs of fear amongst sellers. One of Monday evening's most high profile lots was withdrawn at the last minute for undisclosed reasons: Picasso's 1909 cubist painting "Arlequin," which had been expected to fetch more than $30 million.

Still, the results in New York were better than some anticipated after disappointing and worrisome sales in London two weeks ago. Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips de Pury made a paltry $102 million collectively during Contemporary art auctions on October 18 and 19, a little more than half of value of presale low-end estimates.

But traditionally, it's the New York sales that are seen as the bellwether of the art market's health, making results over the next two weeks all the more crucial as indicators of how prices have changed since last spring.

Sotheby's Impressionist and modern art sale will continue during the day on Wednesday, November 5, and Christie's puts its Impressionist and modern offerings on the block beginning Wednesday evening, November 5, continuing throughout the day on Thursday, and concluding with a third sale on Thursday evening. Next week's auctions feature post-war and contemporary art. Two-week totals for the two major houses projected at as high as $1.9 billion.

-Liz Gunnison