A Louis XVI gilt walnut chair, stamped by Georges Jacob, made c.1784-85, for the boudoir of Queen Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, which was bid to €2.589m including premium as part of Sotheby’s sale series in December of works from the collection of Hubert Guerrand-Hermès.
Image courtesy of Sotheby’s
After a sales boom in 2022 the French operations of Sotheby’s and Christie’s largely returned to a “more traditional course” in 2023, the latest totals show.
The trend was among the results revealed as many French auction firms, or French arms of international auction companies, produced their annual figures at the end of last year.
Heading the list was Sotheby’s with public auction sales figures in France of a premium-inclusive €419m, while Christie’s France chalked up a premium-inclusive €311m.
For both the auction firms’ French operations the totals were lower than the figures of a year before.
Sotheby’s had sales of €449m in 2022, while Christie’s topped the list in France last year with €492m (boosted by the €118.1m from the Hubert de Givenchy collection).
Private collections are often instrumental in turnover figures.
Key to helping Sotheby’s 2023 performance were the 22 private collections offered through the year. These included those of Jacques Garcia, Hélène Leloup, Claude & François Xavier Lalanne and that of Pauline Karpidas (which totalled just over €35.6m) and, rounding off the year, that of Hubert Guerrand-Hermès which totalled almost €32.4m.
René Magritte’s painting, La valse hésitation from 1955, which realised €11.18m including premium at Sotheby’s in October.
Image courtesy of Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s highest individual price, at a premium-inclusive €11.18m, was for René Magritte’s La valse hésitation from 1955 sold in October.
For 2024 Sotheby’s France is scheduled to move from its current home on the rue du Faubourg St Honoré to a new premises situated on the angle of the avenue Matignon and the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
Normality returns
Referring to its latest results, Christie’s said: “After several extraordinary years, including a historic record in 2022, the evolution of sales returns, unsurprisingly, to a more traditional course and is in line with the results prior to the Covid pandemic (€256m in 2019, the last year not affected). Following a record year, in France as in the rest of the world, the art market is marked by an expected stabilisation.”
Joan Miró’s Peinture (Femme, Lune, étoiles), an oil on canvas from 1949 that achieved the highest individual price at auction in France last year when it sold at Christie’s in October for a premium-inclusive €20.75m.
Image copyright: Christie’s Images Limited 2023
When it came to individual lots Christie’s achieved the two highest prices in France last year, selling Joan Miró’s Peinture (Femme, Lune, étoiles), from 1949 for a premium-inclusive €20.75m in October and François-Xavier Lalanne’s Rhinocrétaire I sculpture from 1964 for €18.3m – an auction record for the artist – in the same month.
François-Xavier Lalanne’s, Rhinocrétaire I, 1964 which made €18.35m including premium, setting an auction record for the artist, at Christie’s in October.
Image: Christie’s / Freddy Persson
Others on the rise...
Some French auction firms revealed an increase in sales totals, however.
Artcurial recorded a premium-inclusive sales figure of €217m, just above the €216.5m achieved in 2022. This year’s total included €13m from sales at the Swiss firm Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer which it acquired in spring last year.
Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spatiale Piazza San Marco al sole from 1961 which made a premium-inclusive €6.77m in December at Artcurial.
Image copyright: Artcurial
Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr, which conducts sales in France and Belgium, held 81 live and online sales in France this year raising a premium-inclusive total of €107m, an increase on last year’s figure of €92.2m.
Raoul Dufy’s painting, La baie de Sainte-Adresse, which led the sale of works from the collection of Alain Delon held by Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr in June when it sold for €1.02m including premium.
Single-owner sales included works from the collection of the actor Alain Delon which chalked up €8m and the third instalment of works from the collection of Claude de Marteau which raised €5.45m.
The Drouot auction hub in Paris is the place where auction firms can stage sales in the 15 rooms in its Hôtel Drouot centre alongside a digital platform for live and online-only sales.
In 2023 it achieved total sales of €634.4m including premium for its live and online sales. Of this figure €378m came from live sales at the Hôtel Drouot. This compares to figures of €571m for live and online sales and €362m for live auctions held at Drouot in 2022.
Albert Giacometti’s plaster bas relief sculpture Oiseau or Albatros, a model conceived in 1937, that achieved the highest price at Drouot last year when it sold for €3.965m including premium in an auction held by Couteau-Bégarie in November.
Image copyright: Drouot/Couteau Begarie
The highest price of the year achieved at the Hôtel Drouot was the premium-inclusive €3.965m paid for a white plaster sculpture by Alberto Giacometti sold in November by the firm of Couteau-Bégarie from the collection of Jean and Violet Hensen. It was followed at €3.25m by Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s portrait of a young woman in a hat offered by Boisgirard-Antonini in December.
Among the other individual auction firms releasing turnover figures for last year were Ader, which chalked up sales of €59m including premium compared to €52m in 2022.
Early this year the firm also announced that it is opening a second saleroom in the rue de la Grange Batelière very near to the Drouot centre. Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be reserved for viewings for sales that will take place every Thursday, transmitted online at the same time on Drouot Digital and Interenchères.
Osenat realised a premium-inclusive €40.1m for 2023, which was around the same as the €40.71m it recorded for last year.
In November at Fontainebleau, Osenat established an auction record for one of Napoleon’s famous bicorn hats when it sold this example from the collection of Jean Louis Noisiez for a premium-inclusive €1.93m.
Among the other individual auction firms releasing turnover figures for last year were Ader, which chalked up sales of €59m including premium compared to €52m in 2022.
Early this year the firm also announced that it is opening a second saleroom in the rue de la Grange Batelière very near to the Drouot centre. Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be reserved for viewings for sales that will take place every Thursday, transmitted online at the same time on Drouot Digital and Interenchères.
Osenat realised a premium-inclusive €40.1m for 2023, which was around the same as the €40.71m it recorded for last year.
Institutions step in
French institutional purchasing is always a feature mentioned in the annual totals for auctions in France. This is very often by way of pre-emption (the act of a French institution stepping in to claim a lot after the price has been determined by the fall of the hammer).
Last year was no exception. There were 93 pre-emptions for sales at Drouot, for example, led at €198,400 by a portrait of a Condottiere by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres that was pre-empted by the Musée Ingres Bourdelle in Montauban.
Christie’s recorded 20 pre-emptions ranging from €900 to €820,000; while Ader had 50.
