“Art is always an investment; that doesn’t make it a good investment.”

From Artnet:
On the Money at the London Auctions

The truth of the art market is that art sells better at auction than it does in the galleries. This is primarily due to the “new buyer” phenomenon, which for the time being is what rules the day. All hail the rule of the auction season! Here’s my take on the recent sales in London.

Nate Lowman’s Untitled Marilyn #13 (2012), set a new record for the artist when it sold for £530,500 at Phillips London on February 10, 2014. Photo: courtesy Phillips.

At the Phillips London Evening Sale, February 10, 2014

Lot 2
Lucien Smith (b. 1989)
Feet in the Water, 2012
acrylic on unprimed canvas
Height 96.1 in.; Width 72 in. / Height 244 cm.; Width 183 cm.
Signed ‘Lucien Smith’ on the overlap.
Est. £40,000–60,000

Lucien Smith’s Feet in the Water, the first of his three large Rain Paintings was the second evening lot of the London Contemporary auction season. These Rain Paintings which only two years ago were selling primary for about $10,000 are among the most speculated and “flipped” in this new market of day-trading “collector speculators.” Talk on the street was that the market couldn’t absorb the three works at a full price level, despite the fact that this style of automatic painting and colorful abstraction is right in the crosshairs of today’s fashion obsessed collector audience.

Analysis: The work made £194,500, or US$319,376. Large, good Rain Paintings were being offered privately just before the sale at around US$300,000–350,000, so this high price in fact was just right what the picture was expected to do. The then poorly kept secret that Lucien was soon to announce he would show with New York’s blue chip Skarstedt Gallery (it’s official now—Skarstedt’s website has announced that Smith’s New Paintings will be on view May 15 to June 28, 2014)  gave some confidence, because the new work looks good and also commercial. This painting was sold spot on the money.

Lot 6
Nate Lowman (b. 1979)
Untitled (Marilyn), 2012
oil and alkyd on canvas
Height 59.8 in.; Width 40.1 in. / Height 152 cm.; Width 101.9 cm.
Signed and dated ‘Nate Lowman 2012’ on the overlap.
Est. £400,000–600,000

Ever since Lowman’s breakthrough show at Michelle Maccarone’s, his Marilyn paintings have remained the trophy moment of his Warhol/Lichtenstein–type screen prints that add a generous sprinkling of a trendy rock and roll sensibility. This particular work was a good sized 60- incher with a clean screen and most of the bells and whistles that today’s buyer of big bucks trendy art is looking for.

Analysis: The painting made £530,500 or US$811,986, a new record for the artist. The result was strong yet not unexpected. Word on the street was that a savvy Uptown dealer had recently acquired this painting in the US$700,000 range and put it right to auction. Rumors circulated that it would make a million dollars; it fell short and netted the seller a skinny profit. The work sold spot on the money but left the audience with the feeling that this market has topped out, at least for now....MORE

HT to and headline from: Art Market Monitor