News-Antique.com - Nov 23,2009 - Greek Art Reaches Giddy Heights at Bonhams – artmarketblog.com
Lot No: 23 Spyros Papaloukas (Greek, 1892-1957) Mt. Athos, skete of the Three Hierarchs and the Holy Trinity signed in Greek (lower right) oil on cardboard 54 x 50 cm. Sold for £168,000 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Bonhams UK have been promoting themselves as the gods of Greek art for quite a while now and have claimed market dominance in the UK when it comes to selling Greek art on more than one occasion. I am not entirely sure what brought about Bonhams’ fascination with Greek art, but whoever is responsible for the assault on this region should be congratulated for what has proven to be, and continues to be, a shrewd move for Bonhams. Bonham’s most recent sale of Greek art held on the 10th of November was a good indication that the market for Greek art is extremely buoyant and also that Bonhams continue to maintain a dominant position in what is a competitive niche. A total of £3.5 million worth of art was sold and a number of significant prices were achieved including:
- Spyros Papaloukas (Greek, 1892-1957) ‘Mt. Athos, skete of the Three Hierarchs and the Holy Trinity’ which sold for £168,000 (auction record for artist) inclusive of Buyer’s Premium
- Constantinos Maleas (Greek, 1879-1928) ‘Acropolis / Acropole vue entre des pins et aloès’ which sold for £311,200 (2nd highest price achieved at auction for artist) inclusive of Buyer’s Premium
-Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (Greek, 1906-1994) ‘Calligraphy of a town’ which sold for £264,000 (3rd highest price achieved at auction for artist) inclusive of Buyer’s Premium
As a side note I am hesitant to refer to 2nd and 3rd highest auction prices for an artist as ‘world records’ as Bonhams have done and consider the practice of doing so to be dishonest. Is the 20th highest auction price for an artist a world record too? Bonhams went as far as to list the fifth highest auction price for an artist as a ‘world record’ which I think is rather cheeky. Anyway, back to the action.
Bohnams have a good record with the Greek art auctions that are held in the UK. In November of 2008, Bonhams’ sale of Greek art held at their Bond St. Saleroom brought in a total of 3.8 million pounds and resulted in fourteen artists’ auction records being broken. According to Bonhams, a large majority of the buyers were Greek. Moving on to May 2008 and once again Bonhams made headlines with their Greek art sale when they managed to shift 3.6 million pounds worth of art with and sell a record 90% lots offered. Bonhams also reported 17 new world record prices which, as per above, should be taken with a grain of salt.
The Greek art market is quite unique because of the history of Greek art which basically revolved around the creation of religious icons until the start of the 19th century due to the fact that Greece was essentially shielded from
