"French 18th-century furniture was in serious trouble"!!!
Here's the most needlessly dramatic sentence you'll read today: "The curtain is slowly coming down on the lifestyle of the old Western world establishment, and the impact on the art market is spectacular."
NO, NOT THE CURTAIN!!! COMING DOWN! On the old Western world establishment! Aaaaagh!
Anyway, there is something of a mini-debacle in auction-land? All of the old garbage from the Lyons Demesne, in County Kildare, which is itself for sale, built 1785, was sold, but not for very much money! And this sale is rendered in the most vicious phrasing imaginable! "The monumental portrait of Mrs. Thomas Edwards Freeman done around 1778 made a laughable £49,250. At Sotheby’s London sale of Oct. 24, 1999, the price had been £140,000." LAUGHABLE. (This is, I should mention, an article from the New York Times (presumably the IHT), but really!) How does this account of the auction end? "The current disregard can only deepen as the willingness or ability to take in elaborate patterns in furniture and subtle nuances in pictures decreases in contemporary society." Wow. HARSH STUFF.
How unnecessarily dramatic. A more measured expression would be "the window treatments are unfurling."
Any news on the comfy chair?
It's true. I am completely lacking the ability to look at overwrought furniture. Maybe the auctioneers should start a correspondence course called How To Observe Things That Are Painted Gold.
sure, why not.
"Can't rest my eyes, looking at all this Monopoly Money!!!"
It's a shame that they don't capture the bigger story here. There is an entire industry surrounding the upkeep and restoration of these pieces. As these industries contract, skillsets like water-gilding and proper wood finishing are simply evaporating. It's a cheapening of not only design but of the workforce.
@Rod T I think they're saving that for a separate piece advocating for the reestablishment of debtors' prisons.
"The current disregard can only deepen as the willingness or ability to take in elaborate patterns in furniture and subtle nuances in pictures decreases in contemporary society."
I still am willing and able to FEEL THAT BURN, though!
Also, there was a great article in the Economist a few years back about how nobody really wants to buy 18th century portraits of British nobility anymore, no matter how skillfully executed, because they're creepy and boring. There was a great quote from an art historian who said "Well, in a technical sense these paintings are fantastic, but honestly the subjects only have a few facial expressions: 'I own this land,' 'These are my dogs,' 'On your knees.'"
The good news is that bean bag chairs are fetching record high prices on Craigs List.
Maybe it's got bedbugs
Breaking news: Louis XVI furniture still fugly.
@jfruh A former Boss of mine either is, or fancies himself, landed gentry and owns a named estate outside London. He would play in these auctions. What an awful asset class to buy into – the supply/demand curve is massively generationally unbalanced. I wouldn't be surprised if prices halve for the middle over the next twenty years and the lower end drops to flea market territory.
Similar dynamic in the US antique car auctions, yeah, x% of those are just outright classics, but paying $100,000+ for a non-descript 'perfectly mint' car because your great uncle owned one when you were 7 isn't the most prudent financial wisdom.
But the kids love a good swag, amiright??
I'm still convinced that Souren Melikian never attends these auctions, but just fabricates these grand dramas out of the sales results list. I also imagine this skill was once greatly admired at the IHT.
Prices for second-tier works are down across the board, particularly when you compare them to the auctions of the late 90s, early 2000s as well as 2005 and 2006. It seems Mr Melikian is also completely unaware that the Irish economy has imploded and is showing no hope of recovery any time soon. Does he really imagine there are Irish art collectors with a lot of disposable income right now? All the most conspicuous spenders are getting their homes repossessed.
Neoclassical art in general hasn't kept pace with modernism since the mid-20th century. Just think of David compared to Courbet. Maybe the real story here is that Tony Ryan made just as many poor decisions with his private acquisitions as he did running Ryanair.
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