2016 was a busy year for the auction industry. Picasso’s “Femme Assise” sold for $63.7 million, a rare blue diamond sells for $57.5 million, and a 1957 Ferrari sells for $35.7 million (most expensive car ever).
As we look ahead to 2017 we can only guess that it will be an even better year for auctions and equally as busy for us here at Cal Auctions.
Before the start of 2016 we talked about the current trends in online auctions, and one of those trends was that the industry is going to continue to grow. We did notice that people are becoming more open to online auctions as a way to conduct estate sales. We are constantly getting phone calls from individual sellers who are interested in selling items in our monthly estate sale auction.
If you’re a collector of art, antiques, or vintage items, you probably want to keep up with trends and know what to look out for when considering items to add to the collections or for investment. We’ve browsed the web to see what others have to say about trends for 2017…
Invaluable.com put together a great round-up of thoughts from experts in the arts and collectibles industries.
One quote by Sam Berkovitz is noteworthy because these are trends that we’re also noticing:
“Modern and contemporary art before 2005 will continue to sell strongly, while traditional furniture and artwork continue to remain flat. Artwork by artists without substantial credentials and reputations will remain difficult to sell. Jewelry sales will continue to grow as buyers get more comfortable buying at auction. Auctions will gain an increasingly large segment of the overall market for jewelry.”
Davy Mellado over at iGavelAuctions.com wrote an article about trends in antique auctions where he says:
More online sales, means fewer printed catalogues. Rather than a single static image many online auction houses offer multiple images.
We point this out because if you haven’t been to one of our previews or inspections lately, we no longer offer a printed catalogue. If you do have a smartphone or tablet with Internet access, we do recommend bringing it along so you can reference our online catalog if needed. We also suggest going through the catalog prior to inspection and writing down the lot numbers of items you are interested in. This will help us locate an item much faster if you have any questions for one of our auction coordinators.
Lastly, Dr. Lori says this about trends:
Collect those objects that are sure to be part of the next art or antiques revival. Trends are temporary, but history and the objects that highlight history hold their value.
What are your thoughts about the current trends?
