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Your morning briefing on the luxury and collectibles markets. Today: Art Basel opens with blue-chip buyers back and a $35M Picasso leading; the diamond giant De Beers may change hands; Christie's doubles its Old Masters estimate in Paris; and markets wait on the Fed's first decision under Kevin Warsh.
Good morning. It's Wednesday, June 17. I'm Sharon, and this is Open Bid from ALT/FNDATA.
We begin in Switzerland, where Art Basel, the most important fair on the art calendar, opened to collectors this week, and the early read is encouraging. Buyers moved quickly on blue-chip work on the opening day. The standout so far is a Picasso that led sales at around 35 million dollars. Dealers describe the mood as cautious but improving, with a lot of people playing it safe and watching for signs of a broader recovery. After a couple of softer years in the art trade, a strong Basel matters. For many galleries, this single week can make or break the year.
A notable one for fashion collectors. The long-hidden personal archive of Martin Margiela, the famously private Belgian designer who reshaped fashion in the 1990s, is heading to auction. Margiela built his name on anonymity, so the chance to own pieces from his own archive is rare. It follows the news that Sotheby's will sell around 1,000 personal sketches by Karl Lagerfeld. Designer archives are quickly becoming their own collecting category.
To the diamond world, where the biggest name in the business may be about to change hands. Anglo American has been looking to offload De Beers, and according to Business of Fashion, a group led by Gareth Penny, a former chief executive of De Beers, is now said to be leading the race to buy it. It is a reminder of how much value sits at the very top of the diamond market. In the ALT/FNDATA database, the single most valuable diamond jewel sold over the past 90 days is the Ocean Dream, a spectacular coloured-diamond ring that sold for 17.4 million dollars at Christie's in Geneva. Whoever ends up owning De Beers will be betting that demand for stones like that holds up.
A quick auction result worth flagging. Christie's Old Masters sale in Paris, its Maîtres Anciens auction, totaled about 5.7 million euros, doubling its pre-sale estimate. It is another sign that carefully curated material, even in a traditional category like Old Masters, is still drawing strong bidding.
Now to the markets, where all eyes are on the Federal Reserve. Yesterday delivered a split result on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record, near 52,000, but the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both slipped, as the technology stocks that have led the rally took a breather. This morning, the tone is steadier. Nasdaq futures are pointing higher, oil is extending its slide and holding near a three-month low, around 75 dollars a barrel, and gold is trading near its record, around 4,350 dollars an ounce. The dollar is a touch softer. The reason for the caution is straightforward. Later this week the Federal Reserve hands down its first interest-rate decision under its new chair, Kevin Warsh, and investors are reluctant to make big moves before they hear from him.
To the luxury names. In Europe, where trading is open now, the big houses opened little changed this morning against yesterday's close, much like the day before. LVMH, ticker MC in Paris, opened up about 0.2 percent, and Burberry in London opened up about 0.5 percent, while in Zurich, Richemont, ticker CFR, and Swatch, ticker UHR, each opened down about half a percent. A quiet open, in other words. The more interesting move was across the Atlantic yesterday, where every US-listed luxury name we track closed lower, even as the Dow set its record. Names like Capri, the parent of Versace, and Ralph Lauren each fell more than 1 percent. It is a transatlantic split worth watching: European luxury firm, US luxury soft.
And one more sign of confidence in the luxury market. Hermès has opened a new mega-boutique on Bond Street in London, a large bet on the city's enduring appeal for luxury shoppers, even as the wider sector works to recover from a prolonged slowdown.
On the calendar, the RM Sotheby's Sealed auction, featuring a 1969 Lamborghini Miura, closes today, June 17. And our weekly Luxury Spending show, out later today, rounds up a remarkable week across watches and jewelry.
That's it on Open Bid for today, Wednesday, June 17. Our weekly Luxury Spending show publishes later today, and Closing Price follows this evening at 5 PM Eastern.
For more insights on the top stories in today's Open Bid, check out the ALT/FNDATA market index and datasets, which cover the secondary-market signals behind the luxury names we follow. You can start for free in our data sandbox. To get started, reach us on our website, or by email at info@altfndata.com.
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I'm Sharon, from ALT/FNDATA. I'll talk with you in the next episode.
