New buyers may lift London art sales to $1 billion - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - London's art market is attracting the lion's share of business from an emerging class of super-wealthy collectors from Russia, the Middle East and China, and they are likely to be a big factor in a summer season of sales valued at up to $1 billion (638 million pounds).
Christie's, Sotheby's and smaller rivals like Phillips de Pury hold a three-week series of auctions featuring works by artists as diverse as Rembrandt, Renoir and Gerhard Richter.
Euro zone turmoil and slowing Chinese economic growth are giving investors the jitters, yet the high-end art market has defied gravity on a record-breaking streak.
New York has long been considered the global capital of the auction world -- most recent records have been set there, including the $120 million paid for Edvard Munch's "The Scream" at a Sotheby's sale in May.
London, a more natural fit for Russian tycoons who have homes in the city and Middle Eastern buyers just a mid-haul flight away, may be closing that gap.
Sotheby's has calculated that, while the number of lots sold to buyers from "new" markets has risen in both cities so far this year, the increase has been far more marked in London (33 percent) than New York (six percent).
"Particularly the Russians feel very comfortable bidding in the London sales as many of them have second homes and are very active here," said Helena Newman, chairman of Sotheby's impressionist and modern art department in Europe.
"I think that because of our geographic situation, we are the gateway to the East ... Central Asia, the Middle East and the East," she told Reuters at the company's London headquarters where star lots from the upcoming sales were on display.
"We definitely see that in the sales of recent years. It is a growing trend."
BILLION-DOLLAR BONANZA?
Beyond bragging rights, auctioneers are not overly concerned with who buys what where. Key lots for sale in London come from the United States, for example, and the market overall has become more globalised.
One of the prize lots of the season is English artist John Constable's "The Lock", being offered by Christie's for 20-25 million pounds and the only one of a series of six important landscapes by the painter to be in private hands.
It goes under the hammer on July 3 and should eclipse the 10.8 million pounds raised when it was sold in 1990 - a British painting record it held for 16 years.
On the same night, Rembrandt's "A Man in a Gorget and Cap" is on course to raise 8-12 million pounds.
On Wednesday, a Renoir nude is set to fetch 12-18 million pounds and the next week the same auctioneer offers Yves Klein's "Le Rose du Bleu", estimated at 17-20 million pounds and Francis Bacon's "Study For Self-Portrait" (1964) (15-20 million).
Christie's, the world's largest auction house, expects to raise at least 310 million pounds from its sales of impressionist, modern, contemporary art as well as those of British paintings and Old Masters.
The upper estimate is closer to 500 million pounds, and combined with Sotheby's low target of 210 million pounds, a billion-dollar art bonanza looks within reach.
"The four week summer season of major international auctions at Christie's ... is set to become one of the richest and most valuable series of auctions in company history," said Jussi Pylkkanen, head of Christie's Europe.
MIRO RECORD IN SIGHT
At Sotheby's, the top work of the season could be Joan Miro's "Peinture (Etoile Bleue), valued at 15-20 million pounds and in sight of the artist record set this year of 16.8 million.
Its appearance so soon after the February record is no coincidence -- auction houses tailor sales to reflect the latest tastes, and the Miro, along with works by Henry Moore and Surrealist Paul Delvaux, all follow recent auction highs.
The prominence of large, colourful, figurative works at Sotheby's, including Kees van Dongen's "Lailla", Marc Chagall's "L'Arbre de Jesse" and Delvaux's "Deux Femmes couchees", also reflects emerging market tastes.
Soaring prices for coveted works of art at a time of global economic uncertainty have long prompted warnings of a sharp correction and even collapse, but time and again in the last three years the market has defied the gloomiest predictions.
There has been weakening in Chinese demand and tastes can be fickle, but the very best works of art have generally risen in value since a sharp but brief drop in auction turnover in 2009.
The contraction was as much a reflection of sellers backing away as of falling demand, experts say, and auction houses believe they are back in a "virtuous cycle" of rising prices in turn attracting the very best works on to the market.
Institutional acquisitions have also played a key role in the recovery, with Qatar emerging as one of the biggest buyers of art in recent years as it fills a growing network of museums.
Widespread reports said the Gulf state paid $250 million for Paul Cezanne's "The Card Players" in a private deal, believed to be the highest price ever paid for a work of art. (Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
'Deadly game of cat and mouse': Teenage cyclist 'killed by driver racing his girlfriend at 80mph' - Daily Mirror
A teenage cyclist was killed when she was hit by a motorist racing his girlfriend at speed, a court heard today.
Amy Hofmeister, 13, died when she and her friend were both struck by a Vauxhall Vectra driven by Leonard Jones, 42.
Jones - who eyewitnesses described as driving at 80mph - was racing his girlfriend Leanne Burnell, 21, through the streets of Taunton.
He had just overtaken Burnell's Ford Focus when he lost control, overturned and hit Amy and her friend, who were riding along a nearby cycle path.
The schoolgirl died and her friend was injured in the crash, which happened on the evening of June 15 last year on Blackbrook Way.
Prosecutors allege Burnell was "egging on" her boyfriend by playing a dangerous game of high-speed "cat and mouse" and using their cars as "toys" and the roads as a "playground".
The details came during the first day of Burnell's trial at Taunton Crown Court, where she is accused of causing death by dangerous driving.
Jones, of Mulberry Close, Taunton, has already admitted the same charge and awaits sentence.
Prosecutor William Hunter told the jury of seven men and five women that Burnell was jointly responsibility for the crash.
"Leonard Jones was driving far too fast because, the prosecution say, he was playing a high speed game of chase or racing with another car," he said.
"He was winning that game. The prosecution case is that as a result of game playing - this high speed and dangerous game - on a road in built up area with a speed limit of 30mph, Amy Hofmeister was killed.
"This defendant was playing games with Leonard Jones and as a result was jointly responsible for her death."
Mr Hunter told the court that the chase began when Burnell sped off from a Harvester pub where she had been drinking with Jones and friends.
Witnesses said that they had each had a pint of Strongbow cider.
Jurors watched a four-minute compilation of CCTV footage showing Jones chasing the speeding Burnell through the town, including turning down a no-car bus lane.
Burnell's Ford Focus was leading but Jones caught her up and overtook her at around 80mph - despite Jones's front seat passenger Larry Grant telling him to slow down.
One motorist who witnessed Burnell's high speed driving described seeing her laughing at her boyfriend, who is known as Nitty.
"She saw the defendant turn around towards the other car and smile and smirk," Mr Hunter said.
"The prosecution say they were clearly playing games with each other."
Other witnesses described seeing Burnell's car get "faster and faster".
"The car seemed like it was being driven at full throttle," Mr Hunter said.
"Five to six seconds later the witness says he saw a Vauxhall Vectra following the Ford Focus and almost losing control around the bend.
"They thought the Vectra was trying to catch up with the other car. He says they were driving dangerously and they went through the bus lane as if they were taking a short cut.
"They ignored the 'bus and cycle only' sign which perhaps shows their attitude to the rules and laws of the road."
Police crash investigators calculated Burnell's average speed as around 65mph while Jones was doing nearly 81mph.
When Burnell was arrested she denied racing her boyfriend and said she was driving between 20mph and 25mph.
She also maintained that she had never driven down the bus lane.
"The defendant has lied when she said she was driving at 20mph to 25mph and she lied about the route she took," Mr Hunter told jurors.
"There is clear evidence that she is driving at high speed.
"By the manner and actions of her driving she was encouraging Leonard Jones to drive dangerously. She was in effect egging him on.
"A car is not a toy and the road is not a playground.
"The prosecution's case is that she has used her car as a toy and the road as a playground.
"Call it chase, call it racing, call it cat and mouse. It is as a result of using the road a playground that Amy Hofmeister lost her life."
Burnell, of Bishop's Hull, Taunton, denies a single charge of causing death by dangerous driving.
The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.
London 2012 Olympics: Scottish fencer Keith Cook to continue fight against Team GB omission - Daily Telegraph
It has, though, also emerged that national fencing coach Ziemek Wojciechowski contacted other members of the British foil team, including fencers ranked lower than Cook, urging them to resubmit their details to performance manager Newton ahead of the deadline.
Leading Scottish sports lawyer Rod Mckenzie, senior partner at Harper Macleod, who acts for the Scottish Premier League and is the legal adviser to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, has taken up Cook's case on a pro bono basis and sent a letter to British Fencing, as well as copying representation to the British Olympic Association.
Cook said: "I feel utterly sickened. To find out they had excluded me from the Olympic selection because of an email address was insane – surreal.
"I am going to fight this injustice tooth and nail – I don't want this happening to any of the amazing young kids I coach. I have taught them that the way to succeed is through hard work and dedication."
British Fencing were unavailable for any immediate response, but have always maintained their selection process is transparent and robust, with several fencers having seen their appeals against non-selection already rejected.
Communications director David King said in a statement last week: "British Fencing strongly denies any bias or inappropriate action in the non-selection of Keith Cook for a discretionary Home Nation place at the London 2012 Olympics.
"Like the other 25 athletes in contention for an Olympic spot, Mr Cook would have been fully aware of what was required to achieve consideration.
"We certainly understand the disappointment that any athlete feels when devoting one's life to training and working to achieve a goal like this and coming short."
Britain's top fencer Richard Kruse, who qualified directed for the London Games, delivered a bronze medal at the European Championships in Italy this weekend.
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