A year ago, Chicago's Wright Auctions, a six-year-old auction house specializing in 20th century furniture and other design objects, saw $6.1 million in total revenues from its year-end December auction. Fast forward: A parallel auction on December 3, 2006, hit more than $10 million in sales. (Sales figures quoted include the 20% buyers' premiums paid to the auction house. Sellers pay a 15% commission.)
Granted, one sale included an entire home: A classic, modernist Case Study House by architect Pierre Koenig, restored to mint condition, sold for about $3 million. In any case, Wright has seen consistent growth in total sales in the last year. "We're up about 40% in total sales from last year. We'll reach about $25 million for 2006," says Richard Wright, the founder of the auction house and a longtime private dealer of 20th-century objects. In other words, the market for rare, collectible works of 20th-century design is heating up.
This month, the world's top three auction houses are expecting record sales at auctions of 20th-century design. One reason for the high expectations: In June, 2006, a 20-year-old aluminum chaise by Australian-born industrial designer Marc Newson fetched $968,000 at Sotheby's in New York. This sum was the highest amount ever paid for a piece of furniture by a living designer. Based on that sale, collectors, dealers, and auction-house specialists alike are banking on the rising market value of contemporary design.
Moving Into History
On Dec. 14, Phillips de Pury will hold a sale titled Design &Design Art, focusing on 20th-century furniture and decorative objects. Sotheby's will host a sale of "important 20th century design" on Dec. 15. And then on Dec. 18 and 19, Christie's will present, in a series of six auctions, the largest selection of 20th-century decorative art and design ever to be offered from its New York outpost. At Christie's, the largest sale of the season, more than 900 objects, is expected to break the $20 million barrier from the six planned auctions.
The interest in modern and contemporary design—what the experts label as "post-war,"—as in "made after World War II,"—objects among buyers who can shell out six figures for a rare table or chair is a relatively recent phenomenon. James Zemaitis, director of Sotheby's 20th Century Design department (and formerly of Phillips) says it was in 2000 and 2001 that collector interest in furniture of this period started to gain momentum. Why? To put it bluntly, the 20th century ended and the 21st began, and suddenly these objects became historical and of the previous era.
In the past, the rich bought antiques—Chippendale furniture, for instance—for their rarity and their historical significance. More recently, however, even top collectors recognized for the holdings of antique furniture they have amassed—such as Marie-Josée Kravis, president of New York's Museum of Modern Art and the wife of Henry Kravis, co-founder of the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.—have bought newer furniture.
Institutional Imprimatur
A sinuous, limited-edition wood piece, the Cinderella Table, which was designed in 2004 by designer Jeroen Johan Verhoeven was given to MoMA's permanent collection by Mrs. Kravis, who is usually identified as a major collector of traditional French furniture. The gift indicates that she indeed has bought pieces by living designers, even if she's now donating them to an institution.
Museums such as MoMA can be seen as playing a role in the valuation of design objects. Once an object is in an institutional collection, it's as if it bears an imprimatur, a sort of "safe buying" guarantee for collectors concerned with market value. Perhaps not coincidentally, an edition of the Cinderella Table is expected to fetch an impressive $40,000 to $60,000 at Sotheby's this week.
Paola Antonelli, MoMa's design curator, says that the idea of collecting rare contemporary furniture really isn't that new, despite the current hype among auction houses and increased interest among collectors.