London February Sales Not So Stellar After All, Says ArtTactic

LONDON—According to the research company ArtTactic, about 60 percent of lots at London's record-breaking February auctions failed to achieve expected prices, reports Bloomberg.

ArtTactic reports in its March "Rawfacts" newsletter that although Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips de Pury & Co. raised a total of £189.8 million ($378.4 million) in February, the most for a series of contemporary sales in London, most items sold below or at the lower end of their presale estimates, or did not sell at all, indicating that consignors' and auction houses' expectations were not being met.

ArtTactic said that 10 lots accounted for 70 percent of the total sales at both Christie's February 6 evening auction and Sotheby's February 27 sale, with Francis Bacon paintings going for £26.3 and £20 million respectively.

"The auction houses are continually raising the stakes at the top end of the market," said ArtTactic managing director Anders Petterson. "But this masks how demand is slowing in the middle."

"The problem for the auction houses is that they have to find these masterpieces for every sale."