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It's A 1% World And You're Not In It - Christie's Sales Hit Record
Led by first-time-buyers from The Middle East (up 23% year-over-year), the London-based auctioneer Christie's saw full-year sales hit record highs in 2014. As The FT reports, Christie's saw total sales rise 16%, topping $5bn for the first time driven by a 30% in 'new buyers' as central bank largesse leaked out of the 1% pockets. The Americas remained the primary driver of growth, accounting for 38% of sales and the largest proportion of new buyers. Thank you Mr. Yellen...
Christie’s full-year sales, propelled by a surge in first-time art buyers and big ticket lots, hit record levels in 2014 despite an increasingly cut-throat auction house market and the abrupt exit of its chief executive last month.
The London-based auctioneer announced on Tuesday that total sales rose 16 per cent last year to reach £5.1bn in the 12 months ended 31 December, up from £4.5bn in 2013. Auction sales hit £4.2bn, £1.7bn of which stemmed from Christie’s postwar and contemporary division, whose $852.9m November auction brought in the highest total for an art auction.
Although the rate of growth had eased slightly when compared with the previous year, Christie’s said it had seen strong headway made across every sector. Some 30 per cent of all sales were made by new buyers to the house, reinforcing the success of ongoing investments in its online infrastructure and new-markets expansion. The Americas remained the primary driver of growth, accounting for 38 per cent of sales and the largest proportion of new buyers.
Christie’s — which is privately owned after being bought for $1.2bn in 1998 by Artemis, a holding group belonging to French luxury billionaire François Pinault — releases sales figures twice a year without disclosing its profits.
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“The fact that this was a record sales year for us speaks volumes about Christie’s and the way the company has performed in the last year,” said Patricia Barbizet, chairman and chief executive.
Or - more likely - speaks volumes about the colossal amount of printed money sloshing around among the world's 1%.
As Michael Moses, a former New York University professor whose firm Beautiful Asset Advisors tracks art returns, says he doesn’t see “a dramatic change in the broader art market” ahead. “The art market really tanks only when there’s a substantial drop in global wealth.”
And if there's one thing central planners know, it's how to create 'wealth'... for a few.
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Barely 1% of people own physical precious metal, something to think about when the SHTF and the price rises.
Let them eat the rich.
More likely, new rich will lead the charge to eat the old rich. You know, the elitist douchebags who gave us central planning and fiat.
The real scum will never be taken to task for all the pain they have caused....just their minions. This is a constant throughout history.
Is Ben Bernanke running things? Is Obama, Jamie Dimon, etc etc?? Not even close.
Not to say I would not enjoy a good hanging mid 19th century style for the above mentioned, if only just to see the indignation on their stupid faces.
I don't believe that, life is too short and you may not live long enough to see it, that's fate. People were born and have died within a certain system and may have never seen the change that was inevitable. We haven't had a true reset in a very long time, it's long overdue. The last time we had a hard reset, men dressed like peter pan and tinker bell.
All of this makes me laugh.
When these "Christie" folks finally get their come-uppance (and it's coming very soon)... it will make Marie Antionette's beheading look like a cake-walk.
This is just an old old pattern.
Old monied families generally keep their wealth divided into thirds: Gold, land, easily moved art.
People with money are just looking for an asset that can ride out the coming shitstorm. So the price of art goes up, and it gets bought up. Would you rather keep your wealth in stocks, with bullshit P/E ratios, and prices propped up via QE?
Actually, it's looking more like the East is going to come marching in, in the not too distant future...
The European Royal Class will soon meet the "I don't give a damn" class.... (Read Terrorist, of course!)
Good thing up to half of the Impressionist paintings could be fakes.
"Back in 1940 Newsweek reported that out of 2,500 paintings produced by Corot, 7,800 were in the United States. In 1953 ARTnews stated that there was a “saying in France that Corot painted 2,000 canvases, 5,000 of which are in America.” In 1957 the Guardian in London noted that Corot painted 5,000 works, of which 10,000 were in the United States. And in 1990 Time magazine let it be known that “it used to be said” that Corot painted 800 pictures in his lifetime, of which 4,000 ended up in U.S. collections."
See more at: http://www.artnews.com/2005/06/01/the-10-most-faked-artists/#sthash.nSGm...
Considering some of the crap that's being sold for incredible prices I think your being generous.....
Plus on both of youz.
I see this all through a different lens...
The .1%ers desperately looking for ways to dump their FIAT. This is always a sign in the endgame. You can only eat so many McDonalds fries, but you CAN pay an insane amount of money for "art" and drop it onto your balance sheet and pretend it has value.
I think there is one "group" that is certainly looking to dump their fiat for just about anything tangible, and another "group" that is looking to maximize nominal fiat gain on the otherwise worthless crap/"stuff" (ala Carlin) they've acquired over countless years. The makings of a perfect market/storm. This year should be the nominal peak absent some the addition of "hyper print" button on the Yellenmatic press.
Antifaschistische, the "dump of insane amounts of money for "art"" is a red herring itself
have a closer look at this modern art business with pieces priced over one million, and you'll see the banker next to the artist financing the item
from a point of view of "net worth" or "net wealth", it's embarassingly little of that in this art business, and insane amounts of bank credit
contemporary modern art is the equivalent of Chinese Junk for the rich. a bubble for itself
I'm with you 100% ++++++
We are indeed at the end game (read end of the world), where the underclass just doesn't give a damn anymore, and indeed they have nothing to lose, so let the wealthy play with their stolen loot, it won't matter soon anyway...
Just Keep Calm & Watch it all go up in flames...
without going in the merit of the "end game" (which for me is an Americanism):
the underclasses never gave a damn. if they would give a damn, they would not be underclasses. the very moment you give a damn, you are... middle class
looks like a Paradox, but it isn't
I've always wondered how much silver will be worth when a gold standard takes place. 99 percent of gold owned by elite, while silver owned mostly by the common man.
I hope they still aren't trying to hold us down when fiat dies. I'm clearly a common man through and through, based on my precious holdings.
I don't know too many po' folk with 1000oz good delivery bars, and the amount of silver (decorative art) that accumulates in a family that can maintain wealth over generations can be huge. Meanwhile wedding rings, gold fillings and jewelry are popular among the masses (and that doesn't take into account the huge populations of certain countries where gold is a popular "tradition" among the various classes (e.g. India). I think the greatest driver of silver valuation would be the degree of shortage of physical gold when CONfidence is .gov fiat hits rock bottom, and "elite" who chose not to get into a bidding war with central banks go looking for something other than fiat or (unavailable) gold and are willing to let some of their fiat wealth "trickle down" and drive up prices.
during the Middle Ages in Europe, people were still accounting in gold in their transactions, both at the market and in their loans to each other
in ancient Roman gold coins, without... ever seeing one, in some cases
in a classic HRE Imperial Market town, any participant with wares could collect chits at the market authorities, to be given back at the end of the day
a gold standard is an... agreement. it does not have to involve much gold. the physical side is only relevant at the moment of bankruptcies, or at the moment where two partners agree to part ways
I have a Campbell's tomato soup can I'll let Chritie's auction for minimum $4 million.
Take a shit in it and nail it to the Constitution and you may be able to strike a deal.....
I got one with the sauce still in it !
I have not seen any Andy Warhol that I need.
A few snaps of a auto wreck with Andy's name on it fetches 150 Mil....so telling of the times, so full of shit and bile, so telling of the utter classlessness of the current Oligarchy who is clueless and only expert in hookers and blow.
I think Andy himself would even be appalled. What a sad joke. I saw better art on the side of a subway car before Guiliani.
It's all BRAND now...Salvatore Ferragamo could puke in a Chuck Taylor and it would sell.
The lights are fading, my friends. No more is the "Garde".
Shame.
I have a Painted Word I'll let Chritie's auction for $10 million minimum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Painted_Word
Hang them with gold leaf covered rope but HANG THEM. FUCKING TRAITORS!!!!
The pitchforks are coming out bro, don't worry, those third world countries are not only full of murderous dogs, those murderous dogs are becoming increasingly hungry for blood, and since there is nothing to steal in their country.... (ahem) The hunt may soon be on!
I hope I get to see them get what they deserve in my lifetime. I will show them all the generosity and mercy that they have shown me.
Let's take all the shit these fuckers bought with their free money and put it on their backs until it crushes them. Must be nice to just get free money. Oh, but for taxpayers where all the money comes from it would be "moral Hazzard". I'll give these fuckers moral hazzard when it's time to march them up the gallows and FUCKING HANG THEIR TREASONOUS ASSES.
If shit does hit the fan, remember me, I'm on whatever side you are on. Please don't forget that we are on the same side, because damn you're hard core.
Sincerely,
Your friend
I'm going to take a piss on a canvas, cut off my ear and tell everyone I'm nuts and sell that piss stained pos for millions. I wonder if it would be worth more if I shit on it too.
Millions? Only if you shit or piss on anything resembling traditional western culture.
Intriguing, your style appears to be a fusion of post-impressionist, abstract expressionist, and vagrant.
I am prepared to offer a hefty sum for one of your works. After you bleed out, of course.
From Three Stooges, Curly says : "How Putrid"
only things of value will be food, water land, friends and family and ammo. Fuck these tards with their POS Pieces of Art. Fucking morons.
A fool and his money are easily parted. Christies is the tool to accomplish that goal used by slimy "art dealers".
Nothing like Chinese nouveau riche to really kick this con game into super high gear!
They can't afford the world they're living in...and the folks taking the Axe to their sacred cow know it.
The USA is bankrupt......but it is not poor.
Understanding that difference is equal to understanding the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
Its not the clown who spends thirteen billion dollars on an aircraft carrier but the guy who gets the same thing for one dollar that counts.
Study the history of the Third Reich and you'll get my meaning. "They started with nothing more than a pistol.". They almost ended with an " atomic bomb."
All of the US dollar purchases by the Fed were "sterilized" (meaning converted into DEBT.)
These were VERY wise men at Treasury. "This was a war against the Taliban...NOT Nazi Germany."
The value of the dollar was not to be destroyed.
Simply compare its value to the British Pound "and you will understand young grasshopper."
In the USA if the Bank says no you can still take your enterprise right into the open market itself. (An "IPO.") For example..." 3d printers" or "Yahoo." Interestingly most of these companies have no value whatsoever.
Good luck doing that anywhere else in the world.
This does NOT make me into an equity bull at this time. But it did for a while and I look forward to being that way again.
I don't know if it's the new mix of meds. I don't particularly agree with what you're saying, but you're tuning in on something.
disabledvet
deep down you are an imperialist, which is also a supremacist of some racial order. you fundamentally believe that some of you are better than others but only find false reasons to substantiate your supposed supremacy. In the the end it's just a narrative in your own mind but unfortunately shared by too many like yourself, so there's some kind of belief that arises from your numbers that seems to overide the sheer falsity of the premise. Strength in numbers, does not make a truth. In fact it is generally the opposite. The few make the many eventually understand their own absurdity. Unfortunately sometimes this process can take centuries. By then you'll be well dead and never really learned to evolve, hence your twisted narrative lives inside your spawn to continue its false evolution.
Hate to tell you, everyone is an Imperialist to some degree. Imperialism is merely the abstraction of self-intrest expanded to other regions of interest with massive collections of welath and man power.
Imperialism is the natural state of man that live in a world where force and aggression is the norm. The only way to move beyond it is to have everyman agree to not initiate force.
agree. mea culpa, I am an imperialist, too, to a certain degree
and yet imperialism does not have to be with one racial group or one tribe at the top. or even one flag. NidStyles has hit the nail, here:
"Imperialism is the natural state of man that live in a world where force and aggression is the norm. The only way to move beyond it is to have everyman agree to not initiate force."
which rhymes with the old Roman adage "Si vis Pacem, para Bellum"
there is a real and existing commercial empire on this world, and it's returns on scale are immense. globalization. some of the products we take for granted and are themselves responsible for those return on scale are only possible because of the sheer size of the global demand. microchips are an excellent example for that
there is a real and existing military empire on this world, and it's led by the United States of America. with many "vassals", allies and partners. The Paradoxon of the "Pax Americana" is that the US is both the main cause of many conflicts and the guarantor of "World Peace"
independently of if you call it globalization or "Pax Americana", this changing, shifting setup affects everybody on this globe, to various degrees, and not always in a good way. and yet you can't turn the arrow of time, and nobody can more then attempt to mitigate the nefarious side-effects of it
now let me close this comment without getting on the damn financial side of the whole thing, otherwise I'll start an endless rant. but remember that the financial part is only a kind of "score keeping". In fact, a kind of common "score keeping". in fact, the sheer communality of the thing is very visible in the elites themselves. they always had - even when engaged in literally cutting their opponent's throats - a communal attitude to each other. the "communism of the rich" is the one historic thread that never fails to show up
and this is why "the elites" look so strange, for the middle classes. in many ways, the proposal of the "market economy" was always from the middle, against the wishes and natural inklings of both the top and the bottom classes, which would, in their "natural state", be more communal
and this applies to constitutions, rights of the citizen, citizenship itself, and so on. civil behaviour comes from the middle, restraining both the top and the bottom
your rich look way too rich? best seen at the kind of super-expensive junk they buy, in the same manner of the junk the poor daddle with? well, there is a way out of that. it horrifies the truly super-rich, but yes, most of taxation was actually born out of two ideas: first, the elites have too much of it and spoil the body of the state with it. second, they propose too many wars for the obvious reason that they profit most of it, so make them pay for war
there is an empire going on. accept this, and make sure the bill for it is paid by those who profit most out of it. in theory, a vey simple recipy. the ancients had no problem with that, note
Incisive. Very well put.
Ah, such silly things the super rich do with their money. In many ways, they're the most prolific of the world's hoarders.
Can we ditch the 1% nonsense already?
I'm part of the 1% and I don't shop at bloody Christies. Instead I saved a good chunk of what I earned, drive a paid off car, gathered the necessary metals (gold, silver, brass, lead) and I am putting myself back through school for a STEM degree after playing sales drone.
"The 1%" represents anybody who is debt free and makes not much more than the household median income. That is not an especially lavish lifestyle. A lot of 1%ers are struggling to avoid falling into the "government stooge/debt slave" category. I thought ZH knew better than libertard millenials (unfortunately I fall in the same age group).
Can we instead rag on the 0.0001% assholes who are in Davos right now?
I call the those people "elites", because that is what they call themselves. They think their status bestows upon them elite powers of intellgience and deduction while they muddle through life fucking everyone else and not realizing that all they are doing is making it almost impossible for their future descendants to have anything, because they will be dead after the serfs revolt...
Fake money for fake art - voila
I would buy a classic car, more fun.
Just a reminder for all the 1% ers here at zh.
Fine art, land, antiques, etc. are the traditional repositories of fiat when the winds of hyperinflation rise and begin to rustle the tree tops..
just sayin
The fruits from the QE tree are falling into asset prices and not economic growth. You can participate by investing in food, it's rising faster than art!
Are they really buying art or is art being used as a front to finance other transactions?