Ultra-Contemporary Art Falls Flat at London Sales

Art by young contemporary artists performed well at auctions in London this week, but few flew off the auction blocks in a frenzy as had been the case through early last year.

That led the total value of evening sales of works by artists under the age of 45 to sink 80% from a year ago to £1.9 million (US$2.41 million), according to the London art analysis firm ArtTactic. The total value of young contemporary art sold at evening auctions this week was also 63% lower than at the London evening auctions in February, which itself represented a 25% drop in value from a year earlier.

An uncertain global economy, high inflation, and persistent geopolitical conflicts, combined with the fact these sales come at the tail end of a brisk season of art buying at both auctions and fairs, likely all contributed. Also, the evening sale totals this June didn’t include Phillips, which opted to only offer a day sale.

At least a quarter of Phillips “20th Century to Now” auction on Friday of more than 100 works were by ultra-contemporary artists, a category the auction house has long led. But four lots on the block failed to find buyers, including paintings by Shara Hughes and Harold Ancart. With only a few exceptions, most others sold within presale estimates.

A standout was the very last lot of the sale: Belgian artist Albert Willem’s All in All Not Bad For His First Attempt, 2021, depicting an airplane with plumes of black smoke that landed in the middle of a city intersection, sold for £180,000, before fees, several multiples of a £15,000 high estimate.

Anna Weyant, Cloud Hill, 2020, which sold at Phillips for a hammer price of 225,000. Courtesy of Phillips

All-in-all, Phillips’ auction realised only £7.15 million, before fees, below a presale estimate range between £8.6 million and £12.3 million, according to ArtTactic. With fees, the sales brought in £9.1 million, with 84% of lots sold, Phillips said.

Overall evening sale results at Christie’s and Sotheby’s declined 22.1% from a year ago to nearly £219 million, before fees, with only five lots selling for more than £5 million, including Gustav Klimt’s Lady with a Fanfor a record price of US$108 million at Sotheby’s on Tuesday.

One reason ultra-contemporary works didn’t spark lofty bidding at this week’s sales is that many of the works weren’t the best examples from these artists, says Morgan Long, managing director of the Fine Art Group, a London art advisory.

According to Long, galleries have been cracking down on “flipping,” that is, buying works on the primary market and selling them soon afterward via the auction houses. The result: “You’re not getting access to and putting into auction really great primary material,” she says.

And, Long says, “most people who want good primary [works], have access” to them. A buyer who wants to see great works by Caroline Walker—a popular Scottish contemporary artist—can find high-quality examples at her gallery, Stephen Friedman in London. Lesser quality examples head to auction, she says.

There were three works by Walker sold at Phillips, including Reception, 2013, which sold for a price before fees of £140,000, below expectations.

Buyer hype for younger contemporary artists also cycles in and out of fashion. In May 2022, works by Anna Weyant led three evening sales in New York. This spring, sightings of Weyant works were scarce. Cloud Hill, a 2020 portrait by the artist sold for £225,000, before fees, at Phillips, below a £250,000 low estimate.

Currently, artists such as Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Julien Nguyen, and Sahara Longe are gaining more attention. “There are all these new ones that have cropped up in between the old guard of the young and the new guard of the young,” says Naomi Baigell, managing director at TPC Art Finance in New York.

Buyers, Baigell says, “are probably looking to see what they can get that doesn’t fly out of the saleroom. And because we’re still in this political and financial environment, the eye is much more discerning when they’re thinking of acquisitions.”

And, she says, collectors “want to start with artists that are going to increase in value, not ones that have increased in value.”

The price points for most works by young contemporary artists often fit the bill. During the London evening sales tracked by ArtTactic, three of the top five performing works were by young contemporary artists Louis Fratino, Yearwood-Dan, and Guglielmo Castelli. The top-selling young artists were Walker, Amoako Boafo, Fratino, Ahmed Mater, and Yearwood-Dan.

But newer collectors to the market are also drawn to newer works and to the access to the art world buying these pieces can provide. Since the start of the pandemic, these combined factors have drawn in a wider group of newer, often younger collectors in addition to seasoned buyers, Baigell says. That’s a far broader swath of individuals than those able to buy a Klimt for US$108.4 million.

Galleries are responding to this trend by seeking out and bringing in younger artists. For all these reasons, Baigell believes the ultra-contemporary art segment will continue to thrive and drive interest in the market.

“We’re going to be seeing a lot more of this 21st-century [art] be what is exciting to watch at auction,” she says.

Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu delivered a warning to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a recent visit to Washington: Already-high airfares will surge if the war in Iran doesn’t end soon.

Sununu, a Republican who represents some of the biggest airlines as president of the industry group Airlines for America, has for weeks sounded the alarm to Trump administration officials about the economic fallout from high jet fuel prices. The war, Sununu has argued, must come to a close soon, or things will get worse.

Administration officials have gotten the message.

Privately, President Trump’s advisers are increasingly worried that Republicans will pay a political price for the rising fuel costs, according to people familiar with the matter. Many of those advisers are eager to end the war, hoping prices will begin to moderate before November’s midterm elections.

The fallout from the U.S.-Israeli attack in late February has slowed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane, triggering a sharp increase in oil, gasoline and jet-fuel prices.

That means consumers are grappling with high costs ahead of the summer travel season, as they consider vacation plans.

Sixty-three per cent of Americans said they put a great deal or a good amount of blame on Trump for the increase in gas prices, according to a new poll conducted by NPR, PBS and Marist.

More than 8 in 10 Americans said struggles at the gas pump are putting strain on their finances.

Jet-fuel prices roughly doubled in a matter of weeks after the war began, and they have remained high. Airlines have said that will add billions of dollars of additional expenses this year, squeezing profit margins.

U.S. airlines spent more than $5 billion on fuel in March—up 30% from a year earlier, according to government data.

Carriers have been raising ticket prices, hoping to pass the cost along to consumers, and they are culling flights that will no longer make money at higher price levels.

In March, the price of a U.S. domestic round-trip economy ticket rose 21% from a year earlier to $570, according to Airlines Reporting Corp., which tracks travel-agency sales.

So far, airlines have said the higher fares haven’t deterred bookings and they are hoping to recoup more of the fuel-cost increases as the year goes on.

Earlier this week, Trump said the current price of oil is “a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that if Iran got a nuclear weapon, the country would have more leverage to keep the strait closed and “make our gas prices like $9 a gallon or $8 a gallon.”

Trump has taken steps in recent days to bring the war to an end. Late Tuesday, the president paused a plan to help guide trapped commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz, expressing optimism that a deal could be reached with Iran to end the conflict.

Crude oil prices fell below $100 a barrel on Wednesday, after reports that Iran and the U.S. are working with mediators on a one-page framework to restart negotiations aimed at ending the conflict and opening the strait.

Sununu said Trump administration officials are conscious of the economic fallout from the war: “They get it…and I think that’s why they’re trying to get through the war as fast as they can.”

But he cautioned that it could take months for prices to return to prewar levels.

“Ticket prices won’t go down immediately” after the strait is fully reopened, Sununu said. “You’re looking at elevated ticket prices through the summer and fall because it takes a while for the prices to go down.”

Since the initial U.S.-Israeli attack in late February, Sununu has met in Washington with National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, representatives from the Transportation Department and senior White House officials.

A White House official confirmed that Hassett and Sununu have discussed the effect of increased fuel prices on the airline industry. The official said the conversation touched on how the industry can mitigate the impact of high jet fuel prices on consumers.

“The president and his entire energy team anticipated these short-term disruptions to the global energy markets from Operation Epic Fury and had a plan prepared to mitigate these disruptions,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said, pointing to the administration’s decision to waive a century-old shipping law in a bid to lower the cost of moving oil.

Rogers said the administration is working with industry representatives to “address their concerns, explore potential actions, and inform the president’s policy decisions.”

A Treasury Department spokesman pointed to Bessent’s recent comments on Fox News that the U.S. economy remains strong despite price increases. The spokesman said Treasury officials have met with airline executives, who have reaffirmed strong ticket bookings.

“We’re cognizant that this short-term move up in prices is affecting the American people, but I am also confident, on the other side of this, prices will come down very quickly,” Bessent told Fox News on Monday.

The war has already contributed to one casualty in the industry: Spirit Airlines. Company representatives have said they were forced to close the airline because the sustained surge in jet-fuel prices derailed the company’s plan to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Trump administration and Spirit failed to come to an agreement for the company to receive a financial lifeline of as much as $500 million from the federal government.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has argued that the Iran war wasn’t the cause of Spirit’s demise, pointing to the company’s past financial struggles, as well as the Biden administration’s decision to challenge a merger with JetBlue.

Other budget airlines have also turned to the federal government for help since the U.S.-Israeli attack. A group of budget airlines last month sought $2.5 billion in financial assistance to offset higher fuel costs, and they separately wrote to lawmakers asking for relief from certain ticket taxes.

Ultra-Contemporary Art Falls Flat at London Sales

Administration officials have spoken to the airline industry, which has voiced concerns about the rising costs.