It may be a first-world problem, but September’s art market season is looking decidedly congested. With Art Basel postponed to September 17-20 and the cancellation of this year’s Masterpiece fair in London, fairs have effectively shut down until after their traditional summer break. Other events postponed to September include the respected Art Basel satellite event, Liste (September 14-20), Gallery Weekend Berlin (September 11-13) and, in London, the inaugural Eye of the Collector (September 8-11). These will join events already scheduled for autumn, such as La Biennale Paris (September 17-21), the Lapada fair in London (September 18-23) and Contemporary Istanbul (September 24-27).
Nazy Vassegh, founder of Eye of the Collector, believes that “if we beat this [Covid-19], we could see even more events in September.” But, she adds, “There will be a slower pace — people will think twice before going back to the hamster wheel of five events in one month. The psychological impact of this virus has already hit at the core of our industry and, as art fair organisers, we need to make sure that what we are doing is more in line with this new world.”
Also postponed until the autumn is the launch of London’s Cromwell Place, a gallery hub run via a flexible membership scheme (it had been due to open in May). Managing director Preston Benson says that the decision was made in consultation with its 31 incoming paying members, who were “pretty unanimous”. “We are, of course, not charging people for the time they are not in the building,” Benson adds — a relatively generous approach these days. David Maupin, co-founder of Lehmann Maupin, says the gallery remains committed to the hub. “It is more important than ever to support our artists and community,” he says.
The £20m development of Cromwell Place, which combines five Grade II-listed Georgian townhouses in South Kensington, has already been more than four years in the planning. When building work was stopped it was just a few weeks from completion, Benson says. He is taking “each day at a time”, but suggests that perhaps Cromwell Place’s 13 rentable exhibition spaces could provide an alternative solution for some cancelled art fairs.
As galleries continue to migrate online, art lawyer Diana Wierbicki, a partner at Withers, wonders how many have sales contracts that reflect the increased exposure that comes with new ways of operating. “Just as with traditional art sales, galleries need to make sure their contracts dictate the jurisdiction [in the event of a dispute] when there are multiple locations involved,” she points out — using as an example a German-based gallery that sells a work to a buyer in Brazil through Art Basel’s online Viewing Rooms.
Online platforms generally state that they have no legal responsibility for transactions — though this is worth checking in the terms and conditions — and will state their own jurisdiction should there be a direct dispute with the platform (Art Basel’s Viewing Rooms are governed by Swiss law).
Wierbicki advises galleries to defer to the jurisdiction in which they operate — provided these have “robust case law for art transactions”, such as in the UK or New York. Overall, she says, the law has been adapting to online sales, but the recent coronavirus rush means that the system has been “jolted into new situations a little bit blind”.
One auction that was always planned to happen online was the Sotheby’s offering of 100 works from the stock of the London Old Masters dealer Rafael Valls (April 1-8). The auction house has found that Old Masters sell well virtually, particularly those priced under £30,000. Above this level, concerns creep in about the condition of unseen works, notes Andrew Fletcher, Sotheby’s head of Old Master paintings. The auction house reports more first-time bidders through this route than at its live sales (56 per cent of the total versus 33 per cent since 2017). Many went on to buy a work. “There’s a whole world of people who enjoy clicking a mouse more than picking up a phone,” Fletcher says.
Valls and his team were attracted by such results, Fletcher says. Their mostly 17th- to 19th-century works are priced at attractive levels to encourage bidding — though it’s fair to say that the low estimates also reflect a recalibrated Old Masters market. Top-priced is an aerial view of Ostend (c1675) by Hendrik van Minderhout, which Valls bought for £140,500 (including fees) in 2013 and is now offered for between £20,000 and £30,000. Other highlights include three anonymous works: a 17th-century Dutch school painting of a King Charles spaniel (£1,500-£2,000), a 19th-century French school trompe l’oeil of a nun peeking through a shutter (£6,000-£8,000) and another 19th-century French painting of sea shells and molluscs (£4,000-£6,000).
As South Africa becomes the latest country to go into lockdown, Goodman Gallery has launched a set of artist-designed blankets to raise money for Johannesburg’s Witkoppen Health and Welfare Clinic, which caters to 1.3m people in deprived communities. “The healthcare system in South Africa is only as strong as its weakest link,” notes the clinic in a statement, “and sadly Region A of the City of Johannesburg is a weak link.”
Blankets designed by Goodman artists Broomberg & Chanarin, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Reza Farkhondeh & Ghada Amer, and Samson Kambalu are priced at £500 each (editions of 50) with all proceeds going to the clinic. They’re available via goodman-gallery.com until April 30.
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