A major motivation for collecting movie posters has to be an appreciation of film.
The art market isn't driven by any equivalent love of art, but a passion for bling. Picasso, Bacon, Warhol etc are superbrands. The equivalent of people who think it's sophisticated to walk around in clothing emblazoned with the brand name. Movie posters aren't doing too badly compared to posters generally. The poster as an art form and great poster artists are generally very under appreciated. An unusual result very recently for a Cassandre to reach a price in the Universal league. I don't think these people could get their heads round printing being an art form and there being multiple copies, either surviving or originally. (Excepting Warhol with screen printing and multiple executions.) Just can't imagine how you would imbue posters with the kind of obvious cachet "art" has for them. And the middle class who would be interested, and were when there was easy credit are getting drained of money. New generations have come into movie poster collecting. And with for example Bass, while there's obvious huge enthusiasm displayed online, prices aren't moving, because they just don't have the money. It's really tricky. Other than lining up and shooting the bankers, the oligarchs, and their politicians and having a fairer distribution of money, I really have no idea. On 20 Nov 2014, at 01:24, Todd wrote: > Below is a very interesting article from Friday's Wall Street Journal. > > $2 Billion in two weeks!! And that's just from Christie's and Sotheby's in > New York alone! > > Notice that two of the biggest lots sold were artworks of "Movie Stars," > Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando. And yes, ok by Warhol. > > A bidding war drove Warhol’s ‘Triple Elvis (Ferus Type)’ to $81.9 million, > while ‘Four Marlons’ fetched $69.6 million to lead the sale of 80 works in a > packed saleroom. > > It's not just the art market, other collectibles like comic books, etc have > exploded over the years, breaking record after record, while the movie poster > market has been relatively flat for at least the last 15 or so years. > > There's certainly not a lack of money out there. > > Although there are a couple of poster buyers with very deep pockets, the > poster market is definitely lacking in major buyers. > > **My question is: What have the major poster sellers done to bring new blood > into the poster market?? > > > > Art World's Record Buying Binge: Two Weeks, $2 Billion > > The art market just had the biggest two weeks in its history. > > Since Nov. 4, collectors have flocked to the world's chief auction houses in > New York to buy more than $2 billion of art, a historic high in which 23 > works sold for more than $20 million apiece. (In 2009, Christie's > International sold only six artworks for that much all year.) > > Night after night at Sotheby's and Christies's, the titans of the world's > far-flung industries squeezed like sardines into packed auction salesrooms to > compete for hundreds of artworks created by the world's best-known > Impressionist, modern and contemporary artists. > > To win, bidders often had to splurge: Billionaire investor Steve Cohen paid > Sotheby's $101 million for an Alberto Giacometti bronze chariot sculpture; > other bidders at Christie's paid $82 million for an Andy Warhol silkscreen of > a gun-toting Elvis Presley and $65 million for Edouard Manet's portrait of > pretty woman with a parasol. > > On Wednesday, Christie's conducted the biggest auction in history when it > sold $853 million of contemporary art in a two-hour span. > > Len Riggio, chairman of Barnes & Noble, said he intended to bid on a few > items in Christie's sale, but rivals outpaced him. "I feel like I'm > surrounded by gladiators in this shiny big arena," he said. "Everyone wants > to put their money somewhere, but what are these guys going to do, buy > another house or keep $3 billion in the bank? No, they all want to put a > little bit in art." > > When it comes to what collectors want, Sotheby's chief executive Bill > Ruprecht said they want "blue blue blue," meaning blue-chip masterpieces by > name-brand artists like Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol who trade widely and > often enough at auction to represent this market's version of a Dow Jones > Industrial Average. Seconds after Christie's sold Warhol's "Triple Elvis" > for $82 million to a phone bidder on Wednesday, the house sold another Warhol > portrait of actor Marlon Brando, "Four Marlons," for $69.6 million. Both > Warhols are wall-power large-- "Elvis" stands nearly 7-feet high-- and convey > the Pop artist's signature silk-screen style. > > The art market cycles through good years and bad like the broader financial > markets-- art values notoriously crashed in 1990 and plummeted briefly in > 2009-- but in recent seasons, art prices have only gone one direction: Up. > Dealers say that is because an influx of newly wealthy international buyers, > from Chinese tech entrepreneurs to Brazilian bankers to Middle Eastern oil > barons, have entered the art marketplace over the past decade. Most arrive > seeking to store their extra cash in any art they can find at auctions and > art fairs; others hope to reap the social cachet that comes with owning > world-class art. Investors and speculators have also joined in, seeking to > profit by buying and selling artworks like stocks. > > Around 76% of art buyers surveyed earlier this fall by ArtTactic, a > London-based auction watchdog, and auditor Deloitte Luxembourg say they are > "increasingly acquiring art and collectibles from an investment standpoint," > compared with 53% two years ago. > > Unlike Europeans, U.S. collectors have long been comfortable discussing art > in investment-grade terms, and Americans now buy more art than anyone else on > the planet-- particularly the trophy pieces in these major seasonal auctions, > according to Dublin-based art economist Clare McAndrew. Last year, art sales > in the U.S. totaled more than $22 billion, up 25% from the year before, > according to Ms. McAndrew's latest Art market Report. Moreover, buyers in > the U.S. also took home around half the million-dollar artworks offered at > auctions world-wide, she added. > > No wonder collectors wishing to sell their art trophies at auction lined up > to consign pieces into these November auctions. Dallas collector Howard > Rachofsky said he sold a pair of pieces (he declined to say which) in large > part because the mood remained reassuringly chipper--and because the auction > houses offered to buy his artworks if no one else did. "I thought my works > were overpriced," he said, "but they did well-- and there were other things I > wanted that sold for too much." > > Longtime New York dealer and former Sotheby's auctioneer David Nash said the > market feels bloated and "hyperinflated" to him, but he saw few signs of a > market bubble about to burst-- yet. All but five of the 80 lots offered in > Christie's $853 million sale found buyers. On Monday, Sotheby's sold 100% of > the offerings in it's estate sale of Rachel Lambert Mellon, better known as > Bunny. Such "white glove" sales are a rarity in the industry. "Every > season, I say the prices can't get any higher, and then they do," Mr. Nash > said. > > > > > > > > > > > > To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: > https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
