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Your morning briefing on the luxury and collectibles markets. The second half of the year opens on the same split as the first: Christie's Classic Week set seven world records in London while, online, a once-buzzy contemporary collection could barely find a buyer. Plus a thousand unseen Karl Lagerfeld sketches head to Sotheby's, Bugatti builds a one-off hypercar, and a soft open for European luxury to start the half.
HOW TO RECORD: record the BODY below (intro -> news -> quick hits -> outro) in the 4-6 PM window the
evening before, OR this morning. The [THE MARKETS] block is the morning splice — from
morning_market_segment.py (07-01 open already filled below). Intro/outro don't reference the live open.
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Good morning. It's Wednesday, July 1. I'm Sharon, and this is Open Bid from ALT/FNDATA.
This episode of Open Bid is brought to you by ALT/FNDATA, the market intelligence platform for insights on the luxury markets and related public equities. With a membership, you can unlock access to dashboards, reports and cutting-edge insights to keep your finger on the pulse of the market and drive your competitive advantage. Learn more at altfndata.com/membership.
Today, the second half of the year begins, and it begins with the same split that ran through the first. At Christie's, the Old Masters set world records, while online, a once-buzzy contemporary collection could barely find a buyer. Plus a thousand unseen Karl Lagerfeld sketches head to auction, Bugatti builds a one-of-a-kind hypercar, and a look at how Europe opens. Luxury Spending is out later this morning.
We begin where the first half left off, with the very top of the market on fire. At Christie's in London, the Classic Week evening sales, the Old Masters and the Exceptional Sale, brought in around 64 million dollars and set seven world auction records. The star was a painting by Titian, the great Venetian master of the Renaissance, an early work called Rest on the Flight into Egypt. It sold for 17.6 million pounds, about 22 million dollars, the most ever paid for a Titian at auction.
The very same week, however, told the other half of the story. Online, Christie's offered a second tranche of the Zabludowicz collection, the contemporary works, and the result could hardly have been more different: fifty-five percent of the lots went unsold, once-buzzy artists changed hands for a fraction of what they had commanded at their peak, and a single work fetched just 127 pounds. Within one house, in a single week, the whole divergence was laid bare, a Titian half a millennium old setting an all-time record even as speculative contemporary art, bought at the top of the market, could scarcely find a buyer at any price.
Staying in the salerooms, a piece of fashion history is coming up. Sotheby's is holding its sixth sale of the collection of the late Karl Lagerfeld, and this one includes a thousand of his previously unseen sketches, along with his gloves, his iPods, and hundreds of drawings. Lagerfeld's estate has become one of the most reliable draws in the collectibles world, proof that a great designer's personal archive can be as coveted as anything he ever sent down a runway.
Two quick notes. At the very peak of the car world, Bugatti unveiled a one-of-a-kind hypercar, the Mistral Blanc Éternel, a 1,578 horsepower roadster built with the German porcelain atelier KPM and made as a single example for a buyer who will never see another like it. We will have more on the collector market tomorrow, on Auto Market.
And Loro Piana, the LVMH brand, ticker MC in Paris at 484 euros, won a legal victory in Turin against a company selling copies of its White Sole shoes, in a sign that at the very top of luxury the design itself has become an asset worth defending in court.
[THE MARKETS, A SOFT START TO THE HALF] (07-01 morning open — from morning_market_segment.py)
Finally, a look at how the European luxury names opened as the second half begins, and they opened on the back foot. Burberry was the weakest, down almost 3 percent, LVMH slipped a fraction, and Richemont eased about 0.8 percent. Kering steadied after Monday's rout, up about 1 percent. The US names open later this morning, and we will have the full read tonight on Closing Price.
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[OUTRO] (record with the body — does not reference the live open)
That's it on Open Bid for today, Wednesday, July 1. Luxury Spending is out later this morning with the week in watches, jewelry and handbags, and Closing Price covers the day's signals this evening.
For insights on the data behind today's stories, the ALT/FNDATA membership gives you access to a rich library of market data dashboards, reports and insights. Get started at altfndata.com/membership or reach us anytime at info@altfndata.com.
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I'm Sharon, from ALT/FNDATA. I'll talk with you in the next episode.
