Billionaire Art Collectors Buy Contemporary Art vid 3

946 Billionaires In The World Driving The Art Bubble Through The Roof! Is There Any Room for the Little Guys??!! How big is the universe of collectors ready, willing, and able to spend millions of dollars for a work of art? I asked four knowledgeable observers to give estimates. How high is the limit? Is the sky the limit? Last year at least 810 works of art were sold for over $1 million at auction, according to Artprice.com, which added that we should keep in mind that "until the end of the 1990's only 100 to 200 auctions per year broke through the million-dollar threshold." At least 200 artworks went for more than $1 million at recent auctions. Although one can never know how much more art were sold in dealer's homes, and art fairs, as Carole Lieff, a Los Angeles-based art consultant wrote in her newsletter recently. Did you know that the international art market is dominated by Americans? People that contacted ARTnews were convinced Americans far outweigh our highly publicized neighboring country collectors from Russian, China, India and even a small number of art buyers from Singapore, Indonesia, Korea, and Abu Dhabi. Forbes magazine reports annually and found a record 946 billionaires through out the world, with 415 from the U.S. Last year the figure was 371 with 176 newcomers, 19 Russians, 14 Indians, 13 Chinese, and 10 Spaniards as well as the first billionaires from Cyprus, Oman, Romania, and Servia. But in retrospect at a recent sale of Impressionist and modern art at Christie's 29 percent of the buyers were American and 48 percent were European. The key reason of course is our weak American dollar! So what does this all mean for the art market? Arne Glimcher, chairman of PaceWildenstein said, "We clearly have an audience with unlimited finances, this is the offer-you-can't refuse market." "There's no amount of money that's unreachable in this market," said another observer. "There are people who want to build collections whose budget per item is up to $5 million, and they can't get anything—they're priced out of the market," said Michael Findlay, a director of Acquavella Galleries in New York. "In 20th --century works of art, it's difficult to satisfy them. " The market rose dramatically-between 1987 and 1990_the entire market rose in equal proportion. Paintings of lesser quality and value went up, and paintings of moderate quality and value went up, and top quality went up on the same curve. Now you have top quality, which has gone through the roof. The next level down is very far down." Findlay continued: The paintings that were $10 million or $15 million are now $50 million. The paintings that were $2 million are not necessarily $20 million, because you've got a smaller amount of people with a huge amount of money who are chasing the same type of trophy pictures--......vanGogh portrait, ....Cubist Picasso,...... "Contemporary art, which used to be a kind of what-the-kids-did-following-the-Impressionist-and-Modern-sales, is now giving those sales a run for the money." To visit our online Maui, Hawaii Art Gallery please go to www.SparStreet.com and enjoy the tour. Guaranteed to relax the senses.

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YouTube | February 6, 2008

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