Price Acceleration
As this swell of Albers appreciation took place, his prices began to creep, then accelerate upward. “I think where we’ve seen the biggest segment of change is the market between $100,000 and $600,000,” says Kaplan, the Sotheby’s specialist. Works sized 16 inches by 16 inches or 24 inches by 24 inches,” she says, were typically estimated to fetch from $100,000 to $250,000 and now sell for more than $600,000.
At Zwirner, “for our show in London, the paintings were sold in the range of $350,000 to $1 million,” says Leiber. In the gallery’s second show, in New York, “there were works for the same low range, but it was more than $2 million for a 48-inch painting,” Leiber says. “Other 48-inch paintings have sold privately for $3 million-plus.”
These are rarefied prices. Yet, in comparison with Albers’ peers, they’re relatively modest. Works by fellow Bauhaus artist Wassily Kandinsky have crested the $20 million mark, while other Black Mountain College alumni such as Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell can sell for twice that amount. “There’s a trend right now for reevaluating blue chip artists that are sub-$1 million,” says Kaplan. “So many of them are at atmospheric price levels that people are looking for artists who are brand names but relatively affordable.” “Relatively” is the operative term here: It’s not about how much Albers’ art costs. It’s about what it could cost in the future.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.