Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Collectors are allocating a lower proportion of their wealth to art, according to this year’s Art Basel and UBS survey of global collecting. Although a “significant majority” (72 per cent) of the 2,828 collectors surveyed still allocate more than 10 per cent to art, their average share has fallen from 24 per cent last year to 19 per cent so far this year. The report finds that the share of those allotting a relatively high proportion of their wealth (more than 30 per cent) fell to its lowest level in four years.
The fall “may be indicative of a more cautious approach to collecting, with a greater focus on the need for more liquid financial or income-producing assets”, writes the report’s author Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics. She notes that high interest rates, which make the cost of borrowing to buy art significantly higher, “could also have a negative effect”. More than 40 per cent of collectors reported using credit or other types of loan to buy art — higher than McAndrew expected — including 30 per cent in 2022 and 2023 to date.
Nevertheless, the report finds overall that median expenditure on art and antiques reached $65,000 for the first half of 2023, the same level as for all of 2022, “indicating a potentially substantial rise for the year if spending continues”. The most popular purchase and highest average spend was on fine art, with paintings still the preferred medium (58 per cent). In-person shopping continues to appeal, with 84 per cent of collectors buying at a gallery in the first half of this year (up from 73 per cent in 2022), though art fair purchases were down from 74 per cent to 58 per cent. Overall event attendance — including exhibitions and biennales — was down from an average of 41 per year in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (including five fairs) to an expected 32 this year (four fairs).
Changes are afoot at Cromwell Place, the Grade II-listed, south-west London gallery hub that opened in 2020. Helen Nisbet, recently appointed chief executive and artistic director, has outlined plans for a £2mn refurbishment that would include the opening of a street-level, 80-seat restaurant and a more accessible and visible entrance. The plans take out two of the hub’s 14 gallery spaces, including its 74 sq m and prized Gallery 11, a sacrifice that “will make the whole building more enticing with all galleries of equal prominence”, says membership and business development director Elizabeth Dellert. Architect Tom Croft likens the impact of the new restaurant on the hub to Spring, which opened in Somerset House in 2014.
The building works, which are still subject to planning approval, are slated for summer 2024, when the hub would close, with an expected reopening in time for next year’s autumn season in London — though to be on the safe side, management is not taking bookings from September 2024.
Isabella Icoz, a partner at Lehmann Maupin, which has had a permanent gallery in Cromwell Place since its opening, says that while “there is never an ideal time for disruption”, the plans will “make it much more user-friendly and bring a beautiful and striking building more to life”. She confirms that the gallery is committed to Cromwell Place for next year and has also secured two pop-up exhibition spots on London’s Cork Street in June and September 2024.
Bonhams has started offering the $8mn estate of American broadcaster and journalist Barbara Walters, who died last year, and will host a live sale of 11 pieces of American fine art in New York on the evening of November 6. Top-billing is John Singer Sargent’s 1891 “Egyptian Woman (Coin Necklace)”, $1.2mn-$1.8mn, while the collection also includes Frank W Benson’s glamorous portrait of one of his sisters, “Firelight” (1893). Walters bought this painting for a below-estimate $165,000 in 1988 and it now comes to market for between $400,000 and $600,000.
Walters became the first female co-host of a US network, on NBC’s Today show in 1974, and went on to interview every US president and first lady during her career. Bonhams has nearly 400 items from her estate, including several pieces of designer jewellery, clothes and furniture, the cream of which will also be offered live on November 6. A separate online-only sale, including more furniture, tableware and handbags, started on Sunday and runs until November 7.
London’s Soft Opening gallery will take over Paul Soto’s space in Los Angeles’ Arlington Heights neighbourhood for 10 months, starting on November 19 with a group show organised by its LA-based German artist Maren Karlson and including work by Jasmine Gregory and Sarah Pucci. Soto, who last week opened a 1,500 sq ft space in New York’s Flower District, is taking the opportunity to focus on this second location.
“Smaller galleries in particular try not to spread ourselves too thinly and need to plan things carefully,” says Antonia Marsh, founder of Soft Opening, of the collaboration. She has always been attracted by California and the “intoxicating and toxic” art scene around Hollywood, she says, having earned her masters in curating in the Golden State.
She plans about five exhibitions in LA, while maintaining a similar programme in her east London gallery. Marsh will remain UK-based but, she says, will do fewer international fairs to help manage the new project. “It seems a good time for a different rhythm, when the market is a bit more unpredictable,” she says.
The Hong Kong and Shanghai gallery Pearl Lam now represents British artist Maggi Hambling in Asia and will include a recent painting from her Wall of Water series in a mixed booth at next week’s West Bund Art & Design fair in Shanghai (November 9-12). Lam says Hambling will “further enrich” her gallery’s “diverse portfolio of internationally recognised artists” and plans a solo show in her Hong Kong space next year. Hambling had her first museum show in China at Beijing’s CAFA Art Museum in 2019.
Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ftweekend
