Abstract depressionism

8 November 2007 By Rob Cox Follow @rob1cox

When its sale is underwritten by an auction house but fails to sell at a premium in the secondary market. That happened last night when van Gogh s Wheat Fields failed to sell. Sotheby s and its ilk look like investment banks gorging on LBO commitments, with unsold inventory they need to mark down.

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Shares of Sotheby's fell as much as 38% today following the auction house's disappointing results from its impressionist sale in New York last night.

Last night's auction took in $269.7m, significantly below the $355m$494m estimate provided by Sotheby's. It included 26 lots with guaranteed minimum prices, of which five didn't sell and 10 sold below their estimated ranges.

Notable works that failed to sell included Vincent van Gogh's The Fields (Wheat Fields), Georges Braque's L'Echo and Pablo Picasso's La Lampe. Franz Marc's Der Wasserfall (Frauen Unter Einem Wasserfall), which attracted considerable interest prior to the auction, sold below its estimated range of $20m$30m before commission.

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