Why do art auctions continue to beat records despite the recession?
The state of the global economy may still be unstable, but things are just peachy for art auctioneers. The spring Impressionist and Modern art sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s that took place in New York this week are often see as an indicator for the luxury goods world, setting the tone and tastes for months to come. Despite a lingering recession and art’s often substantial prices, these auctions exceeded expectations with record amounts of money changing hands. Christie’s star lot, the 1932 Picasso Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, went for a record-smashing $106.5 million. This is the second time in four months—despite the recession—that the record for a work at auction has been topped. The Picasso beat the $104.3m fetched by Alberto Giacometti’s Walking Man I in February at Sotheby’s, London. Until the Giacometti sale, the previous record, Sotheby’s sale of Picasso’s Boy with a Pipe, in 2004 for $104.1m, had lasted for six years, despite most of that being boom times. The art world, it
