Christie’s cyber attack fails to derail bellwether sales

The biggest drama of this month’s bellwether auction season in New York happened the week before the sales when Christie’s suffered a cyber attack on May 9 that meant shutting down its main website (still offline at time of writing). The auction house reassured clients that they would be able to bid securely online, but there were industry nerves as online bids — popular in today’s market — had to come through a separate platform with individual links.

The extent of Christie’s security breach, which its executives called a “technology security issue”, has not been detailed, for example whether any client data was compromised. Chief executive Guillaume Cerutti said that none of the May 14 evening sales’ four withdrawn lots, including its top-priced Brice Marden painting (estimate $30mn-$50mn), were related to the issue.

In the event, the sales proved that the auction house’s efforts to enable online bidding did the trick well enough. Business opened with the healthy offering of 25 works from the collection of the esteemed Miami patron Rosa de la Cruz, who died earlier this year. Ably conducted by auctioneer Georgina Hilton, this made a within-estimate total of $28.1mn ($34.4mn with fees).

The mixed-owner, 21st-century art sale was patchier, coming in just below estimates at $66.5mn ($80.3mn with fees), a similar dynamic witnessed at Sotheby’s bigger sale the previous evening. Here, despite some outperforming works, disappointing results for the likes of Francis Bacon and Ed Ruscha resulted in a below-estimate total of $227.9mn ($267.3mn with fees).

Unusually, Phillips boasted the top-priced lot of the start of the week with Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Untitled (ELMAR)” (1982), which sold for $40.2mn ($46.5mn with fees, est $40mn-$60mn). This formed the bulk of its below-estimate total of $72.3mn ($86.3mn with fees). 

Organisers of the Basel Social Club are taking the freewheeling art fair to a new level. Its third edition (June 9-16) will be outdoors, across 72 hectares of farmland field about 10km south of the main Art Basel event. The venue, near the residential Bruderholz neighbourhood, is accessible by public transport or a 12-minute drive, according to the gallery application brochure.

“Last year we had a tremendous response to our venue [a former mayonnaise factory], this year we are telling people to come to the fields, drink a beer and enjoy art within nature,” says Robbie Fitzpatrick, co-founder of the fair and owner of Fitzpatrick Gallery. More conventional venues were available, he says, but he and his fellow founders had their minds set on an outdoor event. A distinct advantage is that the fields come free of charge — “Some of the farmers came last year and loved it,” Fitzpatrick says.

About 60 galleries have signed up so far and have been advised to bring art that is ephemeral or weather-resistant. A performance programme is on the cards, adding to the festival feel, as well as a restaurant and plenty of food and drink, while round-the-clock security will be provided. “It’s going to happen, come rain or shine,” Fitzpatrick says, “and no matter what, we guarantee a good time.”

The market is going crazy for work by the Italian Modernist Salvatore Mangione (1947-2015), known as Salvo, who until recently was barely recognised beyond his home country. Now, the late artist’s dreamy landscapes are chiming with a taste for the surreal, marked by an appetite from buyers in Asia: the artist’s auction record was set in Hong Kong last year at HK$8.7mn (US$1.1mn).

Next month, Mazzoleni will bring a significant Salvo to Art Basel’s Unlimited section, his 7.6-metre wide pastel “‘Il trionfo di San Giorgio (da Carpaccio)” (1974, $3mn). The work, showing the Christian hero defeating the dragon, was included in the 1976 Venice Biennale and comes to Basel from the collection of the gallery’s co-founder, Giovanni Mazzoleni, who knew the artist well, says director Jose Graci. The work will be included in an extensive Salvo exhibition at the Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin, which opens on November 1, he confirms.

At Phillips on Tuesday evening, Salvo’s “Maggio” (2009), a stylised landscape, sold for a within-estimate $380,000 ($482,600 with fees). “Step by step, collectors are beginning to understand Salvo,” Graci says.

This week’s ninth edition of Photo London dips its toes into alternative artist representation models. A new sector, called Positions and funded by a group of collectors, gives space to five emerging artists without gallery representation. One of these, the photographer Bex Day, echoes how many artists feel. “I would love a gallery but I’m not sure about the process” of finding one, she says. She brings work from her Petal series, which she describes as “celebrating the vulva” with strategically placed flowers (£100-£1,000).

Elsewhere, two artists — Cyrus Mahboubian and Ulf Saupe — have had solo booths supported by their collectors, respectively Doha’s Mohammed Al Baker and Zurich’s Kuenzler Collection. Mahboubian, who uses vintage Polaroid film to nostalgic effect (£1,800-£2,700), says his work is “an antidote to how technology is inescapable”. Saupe’s work also eschews the digital and includes his unique cyanotypes on glass, Res Navalis (new creatures of the sea), a series that shows disarmingly beautiful plastic bags under water (£3,500 each).

Photo London, which runs until Sunday, has 120 exhibitors in the sprawling Somerset House. There seem to be more solo booths this year, notably of female artists, making a more attractive visit. Highlights include Florence Di Benedetto at Podbielski Contemporary (€2,300-€12,000) and Jacquie Maria Wessels at Galerie Baudelaire (up to £11,000).

Timothy Taylor gallery has taken on representation of the Jamaica-born, New York-based photographer Paul Anthony Smith. Taylor will be responsible for Smith’s market in London while the artist continues to work with Jack Shainman Gallery in New York.

Smith, who was born in 1988, has a trademark “picotage” technique, which uses a wooden needle to puncture his street-based photographs, creating a distressed and textured surface ($8,000-$80,000). Taylor plans a solo booth of new work by Smith for this year’s Frieze London (October 9-13).

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