Christie's New York Art Sale Flops as Buyers Shun Degas Dancer
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Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Christie’s International posted its lowest sales total in two years for Impressionist and modern art in New York as buyers shunned works by Degas and Picasso amid tumbling financial markets.
Christie’s sold $140.8 million of works yesterday, with 38 percent of the 82 lots failing to find buyers, including most of the star pieces. The London-based auction house had estimated the evening would fetch between $211.9 million and $304.4 million.
“The quality could not be any worse and the estimates could not be any higher,” said Alberto Mugrabi, a New York- based art dealer and collector. “This is what happens when you have the combination of these things.”
The biggest casualty was Edgar Degas’ bronze sculpture of a teenage ballerina, “Petite danseuse de quatorze ans,” estimated to bring as much as $35 million. A 1935 portrait of Pablo Picasso’s lover Marie-Therese Walter, estimated to fetch $12 million to $18 million, drew no bids.
Source: BusinessWeek