John Barry says that in the last days of World War II, his great-grandfather, a prominent German art historian, lost a massive painting of the 16th-century sea battle at Lepanto.
While some risk was offloaded to third-party guarantors at the November series, and sales hit estimates, Sotheby’s saw a loss on a Rothko and seemingly the Fisher Landau collection.
Teleprompter! Makeup! Auction houses no longer play exclusively to the art world as viewers flock to YouTube, Instagram and TikTok to see how the one percent spends.
Amid fears that a new war could threaten the world economy, New York’s coming auctions will test a growing consensus that the $60 billion art market is headed toward a down cycle.