Yoav Dror's List: Art Business

• several companies offering art financing: Sothebys, Bank of America, Citigroup Private Bank (which claims to be the first institution to offer such financing), JP Morgan, Art Capital Group and Art Finance Partners are some of the other lenders on the scene.
• Citigroup Art Advisory Service
• most of these lenders offer are borrowed against already-owned artworks or other high-value collateral.
• We look for internationally marketable fine art with an individual value of $100,000 by artists with a documented record at auction
• minimum loan size is $5 million
• high-net-worth individuals
• Many lenders let borrowers keep their artworks at home, and some also take care of details such as appraisal
• interest rates for art liquidity loans are similar to traditional loans, based on the borrowers creditworthiness.
• in-house financing, a process where the gallery allows the customer to pay for an art purchase over time.
• Many offer this service without finance charges, or at a very low interest rate, usually between 3 to 5 percent,

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• Interestingly, the interest being developed in the arts is coming in various dimensions. Steadily, for instance, more galleries are opening across the country - especially in Lagos. Nkem Gallery Chairman, Chief Frank Okonta, who is also the President of the Gallery Owners Association of Nigeria, acknowledges this fact, while adding that the stake that banks, oil companies and other corporate organisations are holding in the sector is growing fast.

• "In the contemporary sector, the party feeling is gone,"
• The buyer is now king.
• 20% to 30% drop in prices of works sold at auction
• the typical 10% discount a gallery would give its best clients is often now 15% to 20%.
• If the right object comes to market," he says, "there is an enormous amount of cash around to buy that object. But it has to be rare, it has to be great and it has to be fresh
• "Despite the gloom and doom, there is money out there for beautiful and fine objects and record prices are still being mad
• Mr. Roup believes that sectors with specialized followings of collectors -- such as classic European ceramics and glass, antique cars, coins and medals, stamps and wine -- will stand up the best.

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• The boom time for art is definitely over and the plateau that you see now reflects a healthier trend in the art market.

• ales in London and New York saw totals dip from half to two-thirds of
• expectations
• Sales also dropped at art fairs such as Art Basel Miami Beach and business at galleries also fell
• lower-profile markets that have performed well in recent weeks.
• Strong prices, some even exceeding expectations, were seen at sales ranging from American paintings, works on paper and 20th-century decorative arts to porcelain, wine, jewelry and photography, according to Christie's President Marc Porte

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• The art market boom was officially over.
• After a decade of growth, the market was contracting and auctioneers, commercial gallery owners, artists and collectors were nervous.
• Auction results, the only public indicator of how art is faring, are down nearly 35 per cent,
• I don't believe the serious art collectors are staying out of the market, they are just savvier. The serious ones are there for the long haul. They collect art because it's a passion and not just a fad."

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• like their counterparts across the globe — hold their breath as sales fail to materialize. Two of the local galleries that went to the Miami art fairs this month made no sales at all. Eventually, that is bad for artists who depend on sales for their incomes
• We can be pretty sure that just as the unfettered financial markets of the past quarter century won't return soon, neither will the excesses of the art market

• It is the best time for buyers to strike a deal.
• Art makret is going through not just a correction but is also feeling the tremours of the global meltdown. And in this show, to go beyond the canvas for experimental art is quite a challenge

• 'The market is adjusting down,
• 'Historically there has been a loose correlation between the wider economy and the art market, which has taken around 18 months to react to financial downturns,' London's Art Newspaper commented.
• The new buyers, he told the Daily Telegraph, had disappeared as quickly as they came

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• One of the world's premier international art fairs has seen prices plunge back down to earth amid increasing economic woes
• sales have fallen -- in some cases dramatically -- compared with recent years
• this is not the best time to be selling art
• Art analysts and experts predicted sales would plummet by 30 to 50 percent.
• It is a time to be a buyer. There's a lot more room
• Others said the art market was essentially returning to normal after an "irrational" period of frantic purchasing and sky-high prices.

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• the financial crisis continues to damp demand for art
• Selling rates -- and prices -- have also dropped at Sotheby’s and Bonhams’s pre-Christmas events in London
• November sales in New York ended with almost a third of the lots failing to sell
• wner Francois Pinault was considering selling the company
• Christie’s plans to cut estimates on the artworks it auctions by at least 10 percent because of the economic slowdown
• Anything second-rate is falling away dramatically

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• Damien Hirst's market is in decline, reports Bloomberg
• Hirst's work also did poorly at Art Basel Miami Beach
• “Today I’m telling my clients that it’s better to buy established artists who are dead and won’t produce.”
• “the feeling is that the Hirst market has been stretched a bit too far, almost as if it snapped and backfired.

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• within an hour, had scooped up hundreds of works--many of them large, ambitious, "museum-sized" pieces
• Despite lower asking prices--30% less at some booths--and a greater willingness by dealers to negotiate, many buyers put pieces on reserve, requesting hours, days and even weeks to think about buying.
• Sotheby's   (nyse:  BID -    news  -    people  ) was busy starting staff layoffs and
• "But it's obviously a new world now
• The losers in this, aside from those flashy artists and art speculators, could be art galleries. A shakedown is comin
• t'll be a slower pace, and a less amount of sales, but we're back to a better price structure--at worst, prices of three years ago, which are good prices compared to what's going on in the financial world.

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• Pulse Miami concluded its largest edition following a week of solid sales and rave reviews by press and public alike, cementing its status as the strongest fair after Art Basel Miami Beach despite recent economic developments.