A banana duct-taped to a wall first sold in 2019 for $120,000. It could fetch up to $1.5 million this week during a Sotheby’s auction.
More than 1,600 auction lots this week are estimated to fetch more than $1 billion — including Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” (the duct-taped banana), Andy Warhol’s “New York Skyscrapers” and Rene Magritte’s “Empire of Light,” offered by major auctioneers Sotheby’s, Phillips and Christie’s.
Artists and art dealers are hoping the sales will spark a turnaround from 2023, when the market for sales of high-end art contracted 27% from the year before — the first such decrease since 2020, according to Merrill Lynch.
And the sales could also be a test of how the wealthy are feeling about the economy, both present and future, after President-elect Donald Trump clinched a second term just a few weeks ago.
Alex Glauber, founder of AWG Art Advisory and president of the Association of Professional Art Advisors, told CNN that Trump’s victory is “likely to inject some vigor and momentum back into the market.”
That’s because many of the former president’s policies in his first term helped the wealthy get even wealthier — the kinds of customers who will be shopping at the upcoming art auctions.
“The economic policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy should catalyze demand on both the primary market for emerging talent and secondary market for more established and branded artists,” Glauber said.
Art on the auction block
A little more than half of Phillips, Christie’s and Sotheby’s sales — which will carry the three aforementioned art pieces — were based in New York, where 34 of the top 50 auction lots were sold in 2023, according to an Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report.
Christie’s is auctioning 689 lots this week as part of the November art auctions. It is estimating sales of up to $796 million. “Empire of Light,” by Belgian surrealist René Magritte, is expected to fetch at least $95 million at Christie’s.
“It is poised to set a new record for the artist and establish a new benchmark for the entire Surrealist movement,” said Marc Porter, the chairman of Christie’s Americas. “This sale truly presents collectors with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we look forward to seeing how our clients respond.”
