On Tuesday in New York, modern art collectors will get the chance to spend tens of millions dollars on paintings such as Gerhard Richter’s “Abstraktes Bild (712)”, which is on sale with an estimated value of between $22m and $28m. Will the painting, which was sold 18 months ago at Sotheby’s for only $17.5m, set a new record for the German artist? It may be difficult to tell.
Like 38 other works in the Christie’s postwar and contemporary sale, “Abstraktes Bild (712)” has a guaranteed bid, which means it is bound to sell. Like five others, the undisclosed minimum bid has been promised by an anonymous collector or dealer who may also participate in the auction. A byzantine fee structure means that if he or she wins, the Richter’s true price will be less than the headline suggests.
In the notoriously tricky and opaque art market, where dealers do their best to avoid either displaying prices or disclosing to anyone (often including the artist) exactly what a work is worth, public auctions are the last redoubt of open pricing. Now, as Christie’s and Sotheby’s compete fiercely for business, it is losing ground there.