As if things weren’t bad enough for art galleries, do they now need to model themselves on their traditional industry rivals, the auction houses?
Last month, Lévy Gorvy Dayan held its first formal LDG Hammer event, an auction of one work—Willem de Kooning’s Milkmaid (1984)—for a handful of selected bidders who could fork out at least $10m.
The project is, says gallery co-founder Brett Gorvy, a response to client needs, both on the sell side and the buy side. For the seller, having a stand-alone work rather than be one of the hundreds in the traditional evening sales (plus a few De Koonings), grabs more attention. Gorvy says too that sellers are attracted to the relative “transparency” of avoiding the often-hidden intermediaries within a private sale. Plus, he observes, sellers are more willing to start enticingly low when it comes to auction than when selling privately, in the hope of upside.
For buyers, “they like the competition”, he says, a reminder that art collecting is meant to be fun. There’s also the reassurance that other people visibly want the same work as you—a psychology that has long underpinned auctions. Then there’s the VVIP aspect, with one work, one select group, and at one glamorous event, something that increasingly appeals to the super-rich. It has been proved effective—witness the swift top-level sales at the Art Basel Paris pre-pre-preview.
For the gallery, it’s another option they can offer to today’s hesitant and picky clientèle and comes with a sweet 16% cut in the case of the De Kooning. Businesses in the higher leagues already have swanky, pricey spaces, so why not use the real estate you already have? And for the likes of LGD, two of whose co-founders come from high-level auction backgrounds, it’s a straightforward segue. “It hasn’t been something that we proudly put out there in the past, but we realised it’s our secret strength,” Gorvy says, of himself and Dominique Lévy.
Raising the bar
Things are never win-win-win though. The move is a sign of how much the industry has to keep on their toes, responding to a clientèle that is increasingly calling the shots. Reluctant sellers and selective buyers are not the ideal ingredients for an international market of discretionary goods.
Pace Gallery’s three-way business arrangement with dealer Emmanuel Di Donna and Sotheby’s previous private sales guru David Schrader referenced a “new path”. Auction houses too—from where these private sessions originated—are relentlessly reinventing, and with much higher overheads to cover. It is no longer “grow-or-go”, more “adapt-or-die”.
Sure, it’s getting confusing. Galleries have auctions, auction houses sell privately, artists curate fairs and everyone in the industry now seems to be an art adviser. But thinking outside of the box, in a strained market, is no longer just the preserve of new entrants. Whether it’s enough of a solution to host an occasional high-end auction, leaning on one of the oldest exchange mechanisms out there, seems unlikely. But when market veterans start shifting their strategy, it’s time to listen.
