The results of yesterday evening’s auction of Greek art works, from the auction house Bonhams in London, confirmed the crisis has hit the Greek art market too. This auction had the lowest rates in recent years, similar to the Greek sale at Sotheby’s on May 9th, where pieces remained unsold. Specifically, with a total turnover of 2.25 million Euros, only 51% of the projects (175 in total), were sold. While the percentage of the value in the appraisals was 60%.
These rates were slightly better than those of Sotheby’s (48.1% and 40.9%, respectively). However, Bonhams had significantly lowered the prices of the works in an effort to adapt to the economic crisis. “The reasonable estimates in prices are the key to maintaining the Greek market stability and its further development,” quoted Terpsichore Angelopoulou of Art Expertise, who is responsible for the Greek sales at Bonham’s house. “If we think,” she continues, “that in just two weeks 300 works-along with those from Sotheby’s came out and nearly half of them were sold, then in such difficult times this is a satisfactory result”.
The “main players” of the auction were mostly Greeks. However as noted by Mrs. Angelopoulos, the Greek middle class, those who had a surplus and used to sell in the art market, and had also increased from 2000 to 2008, have now disappeared. The works of the Greek sale in Bonhams were not too expensive. “West Coast”, by C. Volanakis (photo), was the work that found a buyer at 181,000 Euros, between the lowest and the highest pre-analysis, as happened with the majority of the works sold.
The “Falais” by Hadjikyriakos – Gikas, came next which changed hands, selling at 167,000 Euros. Third place was shared by 111,360 Euros between the “Unsalted” by Maleas and “Cloudy Sky, Trees and Riverbed” by Ghikas.
A record was only noted for Costas Tsoklis with a museum project that reached 48,700 Euros.
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