NY Sales begin tonight

We'll see how these post-war and contemporary NY auctions fare over the next several weeks; in the meantime everyone is on pins & needles waiting to see if the art market can stand on its own, or if it will succumb to the same fate as the rest of the world markets. According to Marc Porter of Christie's, “Prices of all assets have fallen — stocks, gold, oil, real estate — and it would be unrealistic to expect works of art to be immune to the market’s pressures.” For more of Carol Vogel's article recently published in the NY Times about the sales, read here.

Philip Guston, Beggar’s Joys (1954-55)

Vogel writes about the Guston painting:

Minimizing risk is the message of the moment. While Sotheby's has said that it has provided only half the number of guarantees it did a year ago, the company still has outstanding guarantees of $285.5 million. And guarantees are still given for desirable art, such as the Philip Guston.

Prices have soared since 1996 when Donald L. Bryant paid $1.7 million for the painting at Christie’s in New York, then a record price for the artist. Now Sotheby’s has lined the inside of its sale catalog with the image and experts there say that the seminal painting could well bring around $15 million, which is about what Mr. Bryant has received as a guarantee.