Buyer beware … the Art Market is hot and crazy … Happy Winter and Good Tidings …

Artprice.com, a French company that tracks world auction results, figures overall prices in New York and London topped their mid-1990 peak for the first time this year — by 33% and 19%, respectively. Meanwhile, Chinese art often soared to four or five times pre-auction estimates at recent Sotheby’s and Christie’s Hong Kong sales. Indian and Russian works are seeing similar gains.

“The Art Of Buying Art: Today’s market looks awfully inflated. Tread carefully,” Business Week, December 26, 2005

More

• “Why Collectors Are Crazy For Chinese Art: It’s not only dynastic porcelain vases. Art mavens are buying contemporary works as well,” Business Week, December 27, 2004
• “Time to sell in a hot market,” by Souren Melikian, International Herald Tribune, February 7, 2004
• “Positively Sizzling,” by Missy Sullivan, Forbes, December 26, 2005
• “Auction packed,” by Murray Whyte, The Toronto Starr, December 17, 2005
• “Deaccession roulette,” by Hilton Kramer, The New Criterion, December 2005
• “‘Art Funds’ Starved for Investors” – WSJ, A Guy In New York, August 22, 2005

Post by Peter