Photo via Art Radar Asia,
I could have tacked a question mark onto my headline up there since this is a story about speculations based on big shot collector Victor Pinchuk’s apparent financial faltering.
In a nutshell, Pinchuk’s Ukranian pipe and steelmaking company, Interpipe, is in deepening trouble, according to their latest financial report. So market pundits are thinking that Pinchuk might be putting some works up for sale.
Judging by art market reports on Hirst and Koons, two artists which Pinchuk has cornered the market on, his offloads are expected to perform badly at auction.
With Hirst’s prices plummeting in recent years — fetching up to 60% less than what was last paid for them, and Koons’ going in a similar direction, any introduction of their work into the international art market right now is bound to tip supply into the danger zone.
Hirst will, in part have himself to blame: he’s gone so dotty of late that he’s flooded his own market with just the dot paintings alone.
Pinchuk can blame himself and complicated bank deals for the rest: with so much of his portfolio sunk into depreciating artwork which has, in turn, been financed by banks, his overspending and hurried power collecting habits spell doom.
Such drama! While one man drags down an industrial plant, two artists, several banks and art capital funds, his global business partners, and the art market!
Read more details: Ukrainian Oligarch’s Cash Crunch Could Drive Prices Even Lower For Damien Hirst And Jeff Koons John Helmer, Dances With Bears
The Art Machine 