The June Design Rollercoaster
An article by Brook S. Mason for The Art Newspaper
In this recent article for The Art Newspaper, Brooks Mason surveys the design market through the month of June. With several major auctions alongside Design Miami Basel, the design market experienced several volatile movements.
Brooks begins with early June, and the first design sale of the month at Wright. The auction house experienced a lull with its June 8th sale resulting in only 50.4% sale by value and 56.7% sale by lot.
This sale was followed by the June 9th Phillips de Pury sale resulting in slightly higher results, 72% by value and 67% by lot. However, many top lots results were lackluster while other lots surprised buyers, such as the Luce Rie Large Bowl realizing $74,500 with an estimate of $14,000-$18,000.
Even so Christie's and Sotheby's also held sales later in the month resulting in less than 80% sale by value and 70% sale by lot. Though this shows some improvement, Josh Holderman, Christie’s specialist states that “A lot of people who are buyers were in Basel so their attention may not have been 100%.”
Finally Brooks ends with the final sale of the month, a full circle ending with a Wright auction of a prive Paris collection on June 24th. The sale was impressive with a 93% sale by lot and a 91% sale by value, and Richard Wright commented saying, "Style won the day, the collection was sublime and fresh... Buyers responded."
