What can we learn from Christie's June 2019 Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale in London?

What can we learn from Christie's June 2019 Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale in London?

Posted by Christine Bourron on 19th Jun 2019

Christie's Impressionist and Modern evening sale in London on June 18th 2019 was rather short but hard work for Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie's auctioneer, as buyers were playing hard to get.


1. The total Hammer Price for the sale was one of the lowest in the past thirteen years:

Only in 2016 was the total Hammer Price for the Christie's June Impressionist and Modern evening sale worse than the result this year.   Even 2009 was a better year.

2. Sellers' expectations were not met with buyers' willingness to spend:

While art sellers' average low and high estimates were very much in line with last year, buyers willingness to pay for the auctioned artworks was not there. 

3. Buyers were able to acquire artworks at discounted prices:

At about 20%, the Bought-in rate (percentage of artworks unsold) this year was very similar to the average of the past 12 years. What was different this year was the number of artworks that were acquired by buyers at a lower price than their Low Estimates (Under LE).  

This resulted in more buyers acquiring works at discounted prices, like "Oreste e Pilade" by Giorgio de Chirico acquired for a Hammer Price of 140,000 GBP, 47% of its Low Estimate of 350,000 GBP or "Sitzender Akt mit blondem Haar" by Otto Dix acquired for a Hammer Price of 1.2m GBP, 55% of its Low Estimate of 2.2m GBP.

Other sellers were not willing to let their artworks go for such discounted prices and some of them went home with their unsold artworks.

For further insights on the June London Christie's Impressionist & Modern evening sale consult Pi-eX Tailored Report.