The French long wait recovering to buy

Early last month in New York, Sotheby's sold a Picasso representative one of his muses, Dora Maar, for $ 95.2 million. It is the second highest price ever achieved at auction. Although it does not know the identity of the purchaser, refers to one of these "new Russians", non-collector, but who have acquired this very media room as it is of a trophy, witness to his social climb. This disturbance affects just the France.

Paris, birthplace of the creation of cutting-edge early 20th century, has become one hundred years later, a much more discreet trading place. Here it sells pieces of lesser financial value, works on paper, subtle and more intellectual works or creations of charm, those who are not considered heavy transaction of the year. In this context, the French place reorganizes. The leader of the Impressionist and modern sales clearly Artcurial. It was this firm that offers, this season, certainly the highest estimate table: 600,000 euros.

It's a canvas painted in 1935 by surrealist Giorgio de Chirico representing the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux) by the sea. The Archetypes of its production are mythology, architecture, the horse and the sea in a strange atmosphere, but it is however not the most popular period, the end of the 1910s. "There is not that the metaphysical period in Chirico", protested Francis Briest, one of the auctioneers associated with house sales, property of Dassault. The canvas is, according to auctioneer, of an Italian estate as two other signed works Morandi and Boccioni. "The modern art market is more French." "It is global, and 60 to 70 of our buyers are foreign," says Francis Briest.

For a foreigner, sell in Paris of the modern parts of great names of substantially less than $ 1 million, is having the guarantee of preferential treatment. A benefit which is not offered by Sotheby's and Christie's in New York or London. Artcurial offers in its so-called "prestige" sale, that which takes place at night, a drawing by Malevich from an English collection which would certainly not have had the same fate in Christie's or Sotheby's. It is a small drawing to some historical value it was made in 1916 between the famous "black square on a white background," and the "White on white" table but is nothing other than a small sheet of paper (13.3 20 cm) griffonnée pencil of geometric shapes. It is estimated 40,000 euros.

Parisian square became the hub of the transactions in a field that attracts more and lovers: the drawings and documents on the surrealism and dada. On 8 June, Artcurial disperses the private collection of a gallery owner and editor of Cologne, Armin Hundertmark. According to Bruno Jansem, that is occupied for the collection consisting of 130 lots, Artcurial "is the impact of the"Dada"at Beaubourg exhibition last winter that induced him to sell in France". For example, there is a profile clean charcoal by Francis Picabia (12,000 euros) but also "The box in suitcase", a box with a summary in miniature of the work of Duchamp, imagined by the artist and completed 80 copies between 1968 and 1971 (40,000 euros).

The same day at Tajan will be dispersed the third part of the collection of Julien Levy (1906-1981), between 1931 and 1949 was the first merchant of the surrealists in the United States. In 2004, 874 lots had already dispersed in Tajan for 7.5 million euros after 1981 Sotheby's had sold major works for the EUR 2 million. Still a set of pieces that had been preserved by the heirs to pay tribute by a travelling exhibition in the United States, in the eye of the gallery. They are therefore in the market with an overall estimate of 5.2 million euros. Among 289 lots with outrageously low estimates, it has for example two surrealistic boxes they are composed as small Windows showing of disparate elements to evoke a female character carried out very early by the American artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), estimated at 20,000 euros. There is also a drawing pen that you might think of the 19th century, but which was in fact executed by de Chirico in 1923 (15,000 euros). According to the expert of the sale, which is also merchant Marcel Fleiss, "in the market of art, Surrealism is with contemporary art one that has seen prices increase more drastically over the years up to more than 100 for three years.". The sale of the Breton workshop in 2003 was a catalyst which was amplified by a proliferation of exhibitions on the subject. The target of buyers is considerably expanded.

Kandinsky, Rodin, Degas...

Those who are interested, in Paris, to other aspects of modern art will have to look for one sale to another open exhibit throughout the month of June. The Parisian place is thus made, with estates, liquidations, etc., a table or a large drawing of the beginning of the 20th century arrived, by relations, in a study of auctioneers who will propose a catalogue with 18th furniture, Chinese porcelain and lots of lesser quality.

June 7, Marielle Digard presents a drawing abstract Kandinsky of 1931 (450,000 euros), the same day, Daguerre-Brissonneau, a plaster representing a graceful bust of woman by Rodin "Madam Fenaille" (20,000 euros), which belonged to the patron and friend of the sculptor, Maurice Fenaille; June 22, Calmels-Cohen, a Cubist gouache of Henri Laurens 1915 (120,000 euros), or in Piasa, June 21, a 1889 representative Degas pastel "Three dancers", estimated at 400,000 euros. It is a study for a painting which is now at the Museum of fine arts of Lyon.

This lack of legibility of the French offer promotes purchases by traders rather than by individuals. They will then sell these pieces, often across the Atlantic, with a substantial profit. The market is still not enough organized to appeal to international fans who are not familiar with the labyrinthine circuits of the French square. Still for Affairs to Drouot pets... According to François Lorenceau, expert for Piasa and merchant: "We are seeing a certain thrill." The French, long wait, recovering to buy. In this context, designs, more accessible financially, feed demand. "It should also be noted that, overall, the modern art is part of scores on the rise. "There is a lot of liquidity on the market." Together, the offer does not increase. "It is therefore natural that price, they are rising in a context of scarcity of parts," concludes auctioneer Francis Briest, which gives the example of a drawing by Picasso from 1971 offered for sale on 7 June and estimated at 80,000 euros, drawing that he would have found 30 less expensive five years earlier.