Isidor Kaufmann
We always talk about quality vs quantity, and then there are times when you do not have the quality or the quantity. The question is: what should you do? My opinion, cancel or face the consequences. That is what happened last week at the Bonhams’ sale. Over the past few years, the two big auction rooms have been shying away for the more modestly priced works and many of those have ended up at Bonhams. In the past, they were able to create some nice sales; however, this time, there seems to have been a real shortage of good quality mid to lower range works coming to the market and Bonhams was forced to put forth a sale with many less than stellar works. As you might expect, they took it on the chin.
Jose Gallegos y Arnosa
Taking the top spot here was Isidor Kaufmann’s A Portrait of a Hassidic Talmud Student. The painting carried a $100-$150K estimate and it hammered down at $75K ($93.75K with commission – w/c). I was even surprised it sold given the fact that there was extensive pigment cracking (easy to see in the image). Coming in second was Carl von Vogelstein’s Far Away Thoughts that sold for $28K ($35K w/c – est. $30-50K) and taking the third slot was Jose Gallegos y Arnosa’s The Signing of the Marriage Contract which made $27K ($35K w/c – est. $30-50K). Rounding out the top five were an Adriana Haanen still life at $22K ($27.5K w/c – est. $30-50K) and Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz’s The First Mercedes in Poland made $20K ($25K w/c – est. $20-30K). You may have noticed, that other than the number five work, none of the top four reached the low end of their estimate range. That is a sure sign of the quality not justifying expectations.
Carl von Vogelstein
Among the works that failed to find a buyer were a pair of Chierici’s (est. $50-70K); a Portaels ($30-50K); and the lot they were expecting the most from – Lady Alma-Tadema’s The Persistent Reader (est. $100-150K). There was just no meat in this sale, and only a few lots you could say: that is nice!
By the time the 74 lot sale was over we found that 2 of the paintings were withdrawn (I know one was a fake), 44 sold and 28 were bought-in (unsold). This left a sell-through rate of just 61% and a total take (at the hammer) of $470K (the low end of their presale estimate range was $980K – so they fell WAY SHORT). To further drive home the fact that there was little meat in the sale, 28 works sold below, 13 within and just 3 above their estimate range. This gave them an accuracy rate of just 18% - pretty weak.
I have said this too many times, if you do not have a strong offering of works, then do not have a sale. What good does it do to present a sale that has a very good chance of failing? It does not help the bottom line, nor does it help the overall market. Today, strong, less frequent sales, are the name of the game.