Art won crisis

[SergeiSK]

The pace and volume of sales of the leading auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's reached a level that was observed before the start of a recession. The market works of art out of the crisis - the first half of the leading auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's earned nearly 5 billion dollars. Do not remain aloof from the tendencies and Russia. According to the experts at the antique shops in Moscow, "there has been some recovery».
Back in the price
The market works of art comes alive after one and a half years of falling prices. Major auction houses have concluded that the rate and volume of sales reached levels seen before the recession, writes The Wall Street Journal.
Thus, for the I half of 2010 the auction house Christie's International sold the art at 2.57 billion dollars, that 43%higher compared to figures in 2009. The main competitor of the company - the house Sotheby's - for the I half managed to sell art on the amount of 2.2 billion dollars. This twice, than during the same period a year earlier.
Collectors particularly optimistic about the value of their art in comparison with other assets. It is this increased confidence helped auction houses to persuade sellers to put their trophies at the auction in the spring and summer of this year.
"We will not allow to lull themselves with fake sense of security. But the art market really recovers faster than anyone could have expected ", - quoted the head of Christie's Ed Dolman" Vedomosti ".
more expensive all
What exactly will become more expensive? At Christie's, for example, prices have soared almost all categories of goods. Modern Art and Impressionism was added to the price of 37,4%, prices for postwar art has increased by 139%. And revenue from Asian paintings and sculptures jumped 120,6%.
Another profitable plummet due to the increased interest from Asian buyers steel jewelry. So, the auction house Christie's sold the jewelry to the amount of 227.3 million dollars. At the same time on the buyers from Asia accounted for 70%of purchases, compared with 41%last year.
It is worth noting that the growth of interest in works of art seen everywhere. Christie's sales in the U.S. increased by 116%compared to last year. In Hong Kong, the auction house was able to rescue the 300.7 million dollars, which is 132%more than last year.
And in Dubai, considered the most affected by the crisis emirate, sales reached $ 23 million. Slightly more than 9.1 million dollars, the proceeds for the I half of last year.
«There has been some growth»
Some growth is observed on the Russian market. Experts still find it difficult to voice any specific figures, because the market is very unpredictable .
"Overall sales are growing. Can not say that they have reached the level of recession. But judging by what happens on the antique shops in Moscow, there has been some recovery ", - says head of department on work with antiques and works of art auction house of the Russian Vladimir Pilyushin.
Agrees with him and the senior analyst "Zerich Capital Management Oleg Dushin. He said the revival of the art market has become celebrated in the autumn of 2009.
«Because it coincides with the growth of liquidity of financial markets, it is clear that this reflects the processes of active search for objects of investment funds. This will not only search for items for resale, but also a means of image-growing acquirers of art », - he said.
What exactly is becoming more expensive faster than all the experts also find it difficult to answer. Last year at world auctions were quite uneven sales. "For example, what should be sold at a good price, suddenly took on low. That is, market is unpredictable in this year, "- notes Pilyushin.
For example, Christie's had hoped that the work of Claude Monet's "Water-Lilies" will go under the hammer at least 47.7 million dollars. However, buyers could not find her. The same thing happened with one of the most valuable works of Edvard Munch's "Fertility, although the auction house were confident that they can help out for her $ 25 million.
However, experts predict that in the future will be observed only increase. «The growth will be small, but confident. While in Russia, anything can happen ... In any case, the investment component is a very attractive antiques », - predicts Vladimir Dushin.
(http://www.vz.ru/economy/2010/8/4/423029.html)

[Pavel]

I think that the crisis hurts mainly the domain of production and finance.