At first glance, the midseason sales in New York would not seem to be a signal of much market confidence. These sales can be a grab bag of works brought to market to measure collectors’ appetites and leftovers from big estates. The sales themselves are a good place to take the temperature of the market—here’s where business gets done in a way that isn’t really masked by guarantees or anyone protecting a market—as well as events that are otherwise hard to generalize. That said, let’s give it a try.
As I reported last week, Sotheby’s had solid results with both its various owners sale and its Abrams family collection sale, with most works selling near the estimates and sell-through rates around the industry average. Meanwhile, Christie’s and Phillips posted hammer ratios—which is the total hammer price divided by the aggregate presale estimate, or a measure of how strong the bidding was in the sale—that were on the weaker side.
