This article reports that Christie’s is projecting that it will beat its 2010 record sales of 3.3 billion pounds (about 5.4 billion US dollars) this year. In the first half of 2011, the auction house already saw revenues of 2 billion pounds. Christie’s is confident that this will continue, despite instabilities in the market caused by financial crises in Europe, among other reasons.
On a most basic level, Christie’s says it will fare well because art has both aesthetic appeal and investment value, drawing interest from a variety of collectors. They also said that there are many new buyers coming to Christie’s, especially in the $500,000 to $1 million market. Sellers are also more comfortable putting their important pieces up for auction due to recent firm prices. Lastly, Russians and Chinese buyers are taking a “Medici”-style approach of “super-collecting,” which involves buying a range of works from across genres, not just in those representing their own culture.
As the year progresses, we will see if Christie’s remains confident, and more importantly, successful.
(Nicole Dornbusch contributed to this article.)