The art market is strikingly robust-and likely to stay that way

摘要

In The Art World, Miami hoteliers Mera and Donald Rubell are known as mega-collectors. They have bought so much contemporary art that they opened a 40,000-square-foot museum in Miami to show off parts of their collection. Yet at this fall's flagship auctions in New York, Donald Rubell found himself mainly an observer. "There were many things I wanted to bid on, but before I could raise my hand the price was already in the stratosphere," he recalls. A lot of veteran collectors experienced similar sticker shock. The price slump many had expected after the invasion of Iraq barely materialized. Artprice.com, a French company that tracks worldwide auction results, figures art prices fell by 3.1% from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30. But confidence roared back in November, when the New York auctions at Sotheby's, Christie's International, and Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg generated combined sales of $482.3 million―61% more than at comparable auctions last spring and 19% above 2002's autumn auctions. One sign of renewed confidence was that several seminal paintings by renowned artists sold well above the dealers' pre-auction estimates. Modigliani's Reclining Nude (on Her Left Side) went for $26.8 million, and Fernand Leger's Woman in Red and Green fetched $22.4 million.