Catch the Symbolism in Christie’s Art Sales Record?

Picasso's “Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust,” went for $106.5 million at a Christie's auction back in May,

Image: Christie's

Farewell, luxury shame: The wealthiest people in the world are, again, buying art at Christie’s auction house, at record levels that exceed the peak reached in 2007, before the recession.

In the thick of the recession, the ultra-rich may have considered it unseemly to buy fine jewelry and art—as many a luxury market analyst pointed out— but new record sales at Christie’s suggest that such sentiments have faded away.

Christie's International PLC announced Thursday that it sold 3.3 billion British pounds ($5.25 billion) of fine and decorative art last year, up 53 percent from 2009 and surpassing the 3.1 billion in sales during the art market's prior peak in 2007, before the dreaded “R” word started to dominate economic news.

It represented the highest sales total in the auction house’s 245-year history, with credit going in large part to new buyers from the U.S. and Asia. Sales in the Americas totaled $2 billion, a 109 percent increase over the previous year. Sales similarly doubled in Asia and the Middle East, up 116 percent to $772.9 million.

Among the highlights: Pablo Picasso’s portrait of his mistress, titled “Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust,” which went for $106.5 million back in May, establishing a new world record for any work of art sold at auction.

Why the sudden boost? Art experts told the Wall Street Journal that newcomers who have been buying other types of luxury goods for years have only recently started to invest in blue-chip paintings, and that established collectors are scooping up art because they think that the soaring art values seen a few years ago will return again, and they see the acquisitions as an investment.

The interest shown in Christie’s art has been echoed at venues such as Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland. But the London-based auction house is beginning to face tougher competition from local Asian auction firms like China Guardian and Poly, the Journal notes.

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