Merchants expected lackluster sales. However, transactions were dynamic at the New York fair, organized from May 10 to 14 at the Park Avenue Armory in the presence of 89 dealers, many of whom were French.
Just four days after Frieze closed, TEFAF opened its doors to the VIP public on May 9 and attracted more than 20,000 visitors. The success of this 10e publishing was not a given, as the market had undergone profound changes over the past two years. In 2022, spring sales brought in $2.8 billion, while this year Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips hope to total $1.8 billion. A recent Bank of America Private Bank study found that the average price of works of art sold at auction last year fell 32 percent. So much proof that the spending frenzy observed during the Covid-19 pandemic is now a thing of the past. A sign that TEFAF is adapting to market developments, its website includes for the first time a section devoted to “ works of less than 50,000 euros “. Wealthy collectors were nevertheless there, from billionaire and patron Leonard Lauder to actor Leonardo DiCaprio, including fashion designer Vera Wang and CNN presenter Anderson Cooper. Around fifty museum directors, including Colin Bailey, head of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, were also present, as well as around sixty institutions and collector groups (MoMA, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, J. Paul Getty Museum…), but also associations of friends from abroad (American Friends of the Louvre, Friends of the Musée d’Orsay, Center Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo…).
Six-figure sales among French merchants
Obviously, the presence of the world’s elite and museums stimulated the first sales. On May 13, Almine Rech sold parts for an amount well in excess of $2.5 million. A painting and a work on paper by Picasso (on offer respectively for a sum between 1.8 million and 2 million and a sum between 400,000 and 500,000 dollars), a painting by Kenny Scharf (between 180,000 and 200,000 dollars), a bronze sculpture by Claire Tabouret (around $100,000), as well as works by Günther Förg and Brian Calvin, were quickly sold. The customers were American, Swiss and Belgian. “ There may be a market pullback, but people still have money, even if some are more hesitant said Paul de Froment, director of the Almine Rech gallery in New York. Mathieu Templon, at the head of the branch of the gallery inaugurated in Chelsea two years ago, also quickly sold works, including several by the American artist Jim Dine, who is currently the subject of an exhibition at the Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfù, on the sidelines of the Venice Biennale. “ The customers were mainly American. Only one of them was European », he notes. Among the coveted works are a bronze by Kehinde Wiley and State of Being by Chiharu Shiota (2022), sculpture consisting of a metal frame surrounded by wires and containing the pages of a diary. For its part, Applicat-Prazan sold the oil of Nicolas de Staël Landscape of Provence (1953) for an amount well over $1.5 million.
Design and antiques, two favorites
Antiques were also popular with collectors. Galerie Chenel had skillfully displayed antiques and ceramics by Pablo Picasso in a high-ceilinged, wood-panelled room on the second floor. “ The setting is elegant and intimate », Supports Gladys Chenel, who sold a Roman marble torso from the IIe century and several ceramics. The design was also coveted by collectors: Chastel-Maréchal’s sales included, for example, a console Eiffel Tower (1955) in steel and brass and a floor lamp Antibes (1948) in steel by Jean Royère (around $125,000), as well as several mirrors by Line Vautrin, reports the gallery director, Pauline da Costa Sampieri. “ Even though the market is slowing down, we are very busy “, she confides. A few steps from the Chastel-Maréchal stand, Maria Wettergren claimed to have sold a textile wall work by Gjertrud Hals dating from 2017 to a new client, while the Carpenters Workshop Gallery had sold a bench by Zanine Caldas in raw Brazilian wood (110,000 dollars). Although, during our visit, the Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois gallery had not yet concluded any sales, a monumental assemblage by Niki de Saint Phalle at $800,000 was already reserved. A situation which did not worry Georges-Philippe Vallois. “ I have often met clients here who then came to Paris and became collectors with whom we still work today. “, he explains.
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