What happened in Sotheby's last week?
A Keith Haring print from the Growing series, estimated at £20,000 to £30,000, sold for £192,000 hammer price. All in, the buyer will have paid just under a quarter of a million pounds.
In the same sale, a Pop Shop print, estimated at £12,000 to £18,000 achieved £44,800.
At first glance, the Growing result looks like an anomalous headline and to a certain extent it is. However, taken together, the two results say something more useful about where the market is right now.
Despite what other art dealers might tell you, this is not a case of the whole Haring market suddenly moving upwards. If anything, it has become more focused and the market is behaving with more precision than it did a few years ago. There has been a noticeable tightening in supply at the top end: fewer strong works have been coming up. However, demand for Haring has remained consistent so when a work like this comes up, there is real competition for it.
The Growing print is a sought after print; it has a strong line, bold colour and has the clarity and immediacy people respond to in Haring. It is very much an idiosyncratic Haring. The Pop Shopseries is equally sought after, combining some of his most recognisable imagery with a direct connection to Haring’s Pop Shop in the East Village.
Whilst Growing reached six figures, the Pop Shop result shows there is still depth in the market at a more accessible level comfortably outperforming its estimate and attracting active bidding.
What we are seeing is a widening gap between good and great. Not all Haring’s are being treated equally: the strongest works are commanding higher prices and being repriced upward through competition, while others are moving steadily but with less intensity.
Yes, auction houses can be conservative with their estimates to create interest but those estimates do not create the result and these results show a market that is active, selective and willing to respond when the right works appear.
The auction result proves, what I have always known, that quality matters more than ever and ‘hype’ does not build good art collections.
