THE contemporary

York’s MoMA drove bidding for her canvas The
Visitor up to $6.3 million 1 . Always subject to strong
demand, her works are better represented in major
international art fairs 2 than at auctions, but this
controlled scarcity is not detrimental to her prices.
On the contrary, it stimulates the avidity of collectors.
We saw proof of this in December 2014 when
her large drawing Loreley was offered for sale at
Christie’s New York. Estimated between $100,000
and $150,000, the work fetched $533,000.
Sarah Lucas
Representing Great Britain this year, the audacious
Sarah Lucas (b. 1962) made waves at the
Venice Biennale. Her yellow pavilion with organic
and ambiguous sculptures has re-placed the
former Young British Artist in the limelight. It
just so happens that this renewed visibility for Lucas
coincides with a concerted drive by Christie’s,
the world’s leading auction house, to include important
YBA works in its Contemporary art sales.
Several of the YBAs - Chris Ofili, Malcolm Morley,
Jake & Dinos Chapman - were crowned with
new records in the recent sales at the end of June
1) Sotheby’s London, 1 July 2008.
2) Particularly on the Dominique Lévy stand at the 46th
edition of Art Basel.
2015. Sarah Lucas was also in the summer sales
catalogue with a remarkable work titled Drag-On,
an imposing dragon sculpture made of cigarettes:
earmarked at between $500,000 and $700,000,
the work failed to sell. However, collectors probably
foresaw that conservation of a monster made
of paper and tobacco would not be easy. In that
price range, buyers prefer to invest in more ‘permanent’
works.
Chiharu Shiota
Chiharu Shiota (b. 1972) represented Japan in
Venice this year with The Key in the Hand. Her spectacular
installation made of lightweight boats and
thousands of keys hanging from red cords was unanimously
appreciated (and widely photographed)
by the public and the media. That success could
inject new life into her otherwise moribund auction
market... In fact her last three works failed to
sell in Paris and Hong Kong 3 , despite her secondary
market rarity. Born in Osaka, living in Berlin,
the former student of Marina Abramovic and Rebecca
Horn is solicited all over the world (China,
Germany, Brazil, Australia, Italy, Turkey, France,
etc.), and has been involved in a number of major
3) Between April 2014 and March 2015.
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