An unnamed collector, apparently a Russian, spent $11.3 million at the postwar and contemporary auction at Sotheby’s in London last week for Peter Doig’s “White Canoe” — a painting that, dealers say, would probably have gone for only $2 million or $3 million in New York. Although it was surprising, some in the art world say the high price was reflective of the general unpredictability of the London sales, where some of the major bidders are wealthy foreign nationals for whom a few million dollars is pocket change.

The results of last week’s auctions in London, while considerably smaller in financial terms than those of the most recent New York sales, certainly demonstrated the ongoing strength of the market. The Impressionist and modern art sale at Sotheby’s set a record for the largest sale ever in Europe, bringing in almost $187 million. Meanwhile, the postwar and contemporary sale at Christie’s set a record for the largest ever sale in that category in Europe, taking in just over $138 million. (By contrast, the records for largest sale, and for largest postwar and contemporary sale, were set last November at Christie’s in New York, with totals of $491 million and $239 million.) While it’s difficult to say just how much the buyers in New York and London differ, some people point to sales like “White Canoe” as evidence of the influence of London’s plentiful foreign residents.

“A lot of the activity in the art market is comparable to the activity in the London housing market,” the head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s in London, Oliver Barker, said. “What you’re seeing there is much, much higher prices as a whole group of foreign communities move in, like the Russians or the Middle Easterners or the Chinese.”

These people choose London as a base for a number of reasons, Mr. Barker said, including what he called the “wonderful tax situation for nondomiciles.” Foreign residents in Britain only have to pay tax on income they earn in the country, meaning that plutocrats can successfully shield their wealth from taxes by putting it offshore.
New York Sun

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Posted: 02|12|07 at 8:13 am. Filed under: Auction News.