The fair is known more for the freshness and quality of the art, and meaningful talks and other interesting events, than for high-priced sales. Many museums and galleries in London coordinate openings of major shows around the event. The fair directors and founders, Ms. Sharp and Matthew Slotover, also encourage ambitious presentations. There are works commissioned by them. The galleries from across the world, including China, Japan, Mexico and India take part.
All these aspects were amply visible at the just concluded edition. In spite of some termed a more thoughtful, rather less flashy sentiment than during the boom phase, a fish-in-formaldehyde installation by Damien Hirst fetched $5.6 million, underlining the prevailing optimism. The symbol of the booming art market, the artist has more lately been the symbol for its falling prices and heavy investments gone bad.
His work fetched over $270 million at auction a couple of years ago; whereas that number stooped low to $19 million in 2009, according to a recent report in The Economist. But the latest sale bucked the trend. One of the Frieze directors revealed that it ‘may be the highest price point of any artwork ever achieved at the fair.” A news report in The New York Times mentioned:
“Dealers were generally upbeat about sales. A Luc Tuymans painting, ‘Evidence’, went for $850,000. According to a gallery owner, some of the American clients decided not to come to Frieze this year.”
While there indeed happened to be fewer Americans than earlier, there was a greater influx of buyers from the countries of the erstwhile Soviet Union and Asia at Frieze. In fact, the Hirst work was acquired by an Asian collector. This year Brazilians were out in force, as were the Ukrainian, Russian, Korean and Indian collectors/investors. With their newly acquired wealth, they were now keen to buy more art, a dealer observed.
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