"It's been one of the best years for our team, by nearly all metrics – total revenue of sales, total new clients, value for most expensive works sold," says Nima Sagharchi, director of Middle Eastern, Islamic and South Asian art at Bonhams. "And overall, Bonhams had the best second half of the year in its history."
Auction houses have seemingly benefitted from the coronavirus pandemic. With traditional competition in the form of art fairs dampened, global auctioneers have been racking up the headlines. Little-known artist Beeple achieved $69 million at Christie's in March, setting a record for his digital artwork Everydays: The First 5000 Days, sold in an equally little-known medium (at the time), non-fungible tokens or NFTs.
Jean-Michel Basquiat's painting Warrior (1982) sold for $41.7m at Christie's a few weeks later, becoming the most expensive Western work of art to be sold at auction in Asia. And, again at Christie's last month, Banksy sold his Game Changer (2020) for a record £16.7m ($23.1m), the proceeds of which went to the UK's National Health Service charities.
'It has been an incredible year'
Auction houses, it seems, have been killing it, buoyed by a growing stock market and a rise in discretionary income, as the pandemic has limited opportunities for holidays, shopping and entertainment.
Private sales conducted by auction houses have soared, too. Christie's reported that its total revenue last year was up by 84 per cent compared to 2019. Over the past year, it says the house sold more works over $25m via private sales than it had at auction.
"For big fat capitalists, it has been an incredible year," says Belgian art collector and market watcher Alain Servais. "The S&P [stock market index] has grown by 100 per cent since the dip in March last year. Portfolios have been rising by about 10 per cent and 25 per cent. A lot of people have made a lot of money over the past 12 months."
For the art market, the change is not only that there is more money in the system, it's that the money is coming from different places, and going to different artworks.
"It's clear that the wealth is being made quicker now than it ever has been," says Francis Outred, former chairman and head of post-war and contemporary art across Europe, the Middle East, Russia and India at Christie's, and who now runs his own eponymous agency.
Asian markets, younger demographic
“The age of these millionaires and billionaires is getting younger and younger, and they’re looking for places to put their money," Outred adds.
"They’re responding to their instincts, and they’re less obedient to the traditional norms of the art market,” he says.
It's a little bit the same in the financial markets. Hardly anyone is speaking about Apple and Microsoft – everybody's talking about GameStop and Hertz
Many of the new collectors are coming from the tech world or from websites in Asia, such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. A whopping 91 per cent of the bidders for the Christie's online-only sale, at which the Beeple work single-handedly helped to propel the acronym NFT into the mainstream, were new to the auction house.
Younger collectors tend to be less afraid of digital work and of buying art online. Their taste is also different, leaning more towards names with social media recognition – and with speculative potential – rather than art-world accreditation. Neither Beeple nor Banksy have had major museum shows, and even Basquiat, though better established, is under-represented in museum collections.
"What is remarkable right now in the auctions is high prices are done by the non-mainstream things," says Servais. "Nobody speaks about anything else than Kaws, Beeple and the new Amoako Boafo. But we could say, tentatively, that none of those artists has any chance to end up in the Venice Biennale.
“It’s a little bit the same in the financial markets. Hardly anyone is speaking about Apple and Microsoft – everybody’s talking about GameStop and Hertz.”
While Banksy soared, some blue-chip artists fell flat at auction in March. At Sotheby's, an Edvard Munch self-portrait went for £4.3m, at the bottom of its estimate. At Christie's, in the same sale as Banksy's Game Changer, an untitled Philip Guston work from 1968 went under estimate for £736,500, and a Francis Bacon sold mid-estimate at a little less than £5m.
How is the Middle Eastern art market doing?
But the past year of auctions have not been an evenly paced success story. After a shutdown in March and April last year, spring sales at Sotheby's and Christie's surprised the world by their jubilant figures, fuelled by pent-up demand. The sales in a suddenly crowded second half of the year, however, slowed to an even respectability, picking up again only this March.
For the Middle Eastern market, the changes have been less pronounced, and the market remains inoculated from the kind of speculation it last experienced before the 2008 financial crash. While some works are in high demand, for example by Iranian artist Bahman Mohasses, most lots at auctions held by Sotheby's and Bonhams in the region last month went for mid-estimate or slightly above.
“Works by established artists with rock-solid provenance will always be attractive,” says Charles Pocock of Meem Gallery in Dubai. “But the middle market is flat.”
Christie's did not hold a Middle East auction last month, having reduced its calendar after a tougher year in the region than elsewhere. In its November Middle East modern sale last year, 45 per cent went unsold by lot; and in the Matters of Material sale, held on the same day, which brought together contemporary artists from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, 78 per cent went unsold by lot. By comparison, Sotheby's and Bonhams, in their November modern and contemporary Middle East sales, reported that 19 per cent and 28 per cent remained unsold by lot, respectively.
Christie's, an established industry leader, will almost certainly ride out the chaos of the past year. But there will be effects in the short term. "Clients will not want to entrust works or collections to a house that cannot deliver on prices," says Pocock. "It's clear, for example, that Bonhams has already benefited." (Rumours are swirling about two important modern collections that Bonhams has won the right to auction at its next Middle East sale.)
If the regional market is less prone to speculation, it, too, has undergone an expansion of clientele. Sagharchi of Bonhams says the bulk of his bidders from the Gulf were once from the UAE and Qatar, but there's recently been a rise in registrations from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait.
After circumstances return to normal, he’s confident the increased activity will remain. “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” he says. “For first-time buyers, just because the world is open you won’t lose interest in art.”
But in the global market, many worry about the long-term effects of speculation around younger artists. There is a frisson of excitement around challenging the status quo – Banksy's donation of the Game Changer hammer price to the NHS is a sore reminder of the shocking amounts of money artworks routinely go for, and the fact that the money might be better used elsewhere.
But will these untested artists hold their prices? And if they don't, will the new buyers come back? More fundamentally, though, what is the effect on the overall art market if the accumulated judgment of curators, critics and experts is ignored? Servais is explicit in his answer. "We're not talking about art anymore, we're not talking about content anymore, we're not talking about art history anymore," he says. "We're talking about speculative luxury goods."
TICKETS
Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.
The biog
Favourite books: 'Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life' by Jane D. Mathews and ‘The Moment of Lift’ by Melinda Gates
Favourite travel destination: Greece, a blend of ancient history and captivating nature. It always has given me a sense of joy, endless possibilities, positive energy and wonderful people that make you feel at home.
Favourite pastime: travelling and experiencing different cultures across the globe.
Favourite quote: “In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders” - Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.
Favourite Movie: Mona Lisa Smile
Favourite Author: Kahlil Gibran
Favourite Artist: Meryl Streep
Greatest Royal Rumble results
John Cena pinned Triple H in a singles match
Cedric Alexander retained the WWE Cruiserweight title against Kalisto
Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt win the Raw Tag Team titles against Cesaro and Sheamus
Jeff Hardy retained the United States title against Jinder Mahal
Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos
Seth Rollins retains the Intercontinental title against The Miz, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
AJ Styles remains WWE World Heavyweight champion after he and Shinsuke Nakamura are both counted out
The Undertaker beats Rusev in a casket match
Brock Lesnar retains the WWE Universal title against Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
Braun Strowman won the 50-man Royal Rumble by eliminating Big Cass last
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE)
Matches can be watched on BeIN Sports
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The specs: Aston Martin DB11 V8 vs Ferrari GTC4Lusso T
Price, base: Dh840,000; Dh120,000
Engine: 4.0L V8 twin-turbo; 3.9L V8 turbo
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic; seven-speed automatic
Power: 509hp @ 6,000rpm; 601hp @ 7,500rpm
Torque: 695Nm @ 2,000rpm; 760Nm @ 3,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.9L / 100km; 11.6L / 100km
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
Company name: Play:Date
Launched: March 2017 on UAE Mother’s Day
Founder: Shamim Kassibawi
Based: Dubai with operations in the UAE and US
Sector: Tech
Size: 20 employees
Stage of funding: Seed
Investors: Three founders (two silent co-founders) and one venture capital fund
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
The biog
From: Ras Al Khaimah
Age: 50
Profession: Electronic engineer, worked with Etisalat for the past 20 years
Hobbies: 'Anything that involves exploration, hunting, fishing, mountaineering, the sea, hiking, scuba diving, and adventure sports'
Favourite quote: 'Life is so simple, enjoy it'
more from Janine di Giovanni
Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
RESULTS
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 Group 1 (PA) Dh119,373 (Dirt) 1,600m
Winner: Brraq, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Jean-Claude Pecout (trainer)
7.05pm: Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Taamol, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (Turf) 1,800m
Winner: Eqtiraan, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
8.15pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial (TB) Dh183,650 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Soft Whisper, Pat Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.
9.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Hypothetical, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,000m
Winner: Etisalat, Sando Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
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KEY%20DATES%20IN%20AMAZON'S%20HISTORY
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MANDOOB
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