Thursday, November 13, 2008

Poster Auctions International Sells Over 500 Posters at Auction in New York

Posters featuring the boxers Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries were estimated at a modest $1500-$2000, the pair attracted the largest number of bidders, reaching an unforeseen total of $10,925.

















Well here is a sector of the ART market that might flourish during these hard economic times...collecting Art POSTERS!

ARTmostfierce has a private stash of them!

From Damien Hirst , Gregory Crewdson, Aleksandra Mir, Richard Serra, Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg,Ed Ruscha and expecting the Obama's Shepard Fairey one in the mail , posters are extremely affordable and valuable if they limited special edition and of course signed by the artist .

If you are lucky to own one of Keith Haring's signed AIDS or Africa posters , they also go for quite a bit of money.

So here is a tip...if you don't have any money (like most of us these days!) start going to art openings and book signings . Sometimes the artist make a poster for their show and the gallery sells them for between $10-$40 USD. At the opening the showing artist is usually signing them.

Another good way of collecting during these times is buying and collecting ART and Photography books. I do have a small stash of those also and again the book signings are crucial for you to get that validation artist signature.

Even in the worst times ahead, art collection must go on!

With the current financial crisis still looming large in the minds of buyers, many auction houses have come to consider themselves lucky if 25-35% of their lots are sold. This was not the case this past Sunday at Poster Auctions International, Inc., where the sale, comprised of over 500 lots of rare, vintage posters, reached a remarkable 44%, for a total of $1,300,000.

While not the record-breaking totals of the last two auctions held at Poster Auctions International, this solid result proves that even in troubled times “the people’s art” is a strong investment. That said, this auction of over 500 lots of rare vintage posters was still far from ordinary.

Of particular interest were two larger-than-life-sized posters featuring the boxers Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries. Estimated at a modest $1500-$2000, the pair attracted the largest number of bidders, reaching an unforeseen total of $10,925.

Also sparking a enthusiastic response from the public was Alphonse Mucha’s rarely-seen poster for Heidsieck Chmpagne, selling for an impressive $63,250. The same price was met by A.M. Cassandre’s poster for Miniwatt/Philips Radio, far exceeding the predicted estimate.

Another surprise emerged from the Books and Periodicals section of the auction, where a complete set of Les Maitres de l’Affiche sold for $43,700.

What do all of these results mean, you may ask? Jack Rennert, founder and president of Poster Auctions International, I believe sums it up best: “Global markets may lack confidence in asset values, but poster collectors are fully confident in the value of their posters.”

1 comment:

Lisa Hunter said...

I bought a full-length Mucha "Champagne Ruinart" in 1992 for $2,300. It was at a vintage poster auction at Sotheby's, and half the lots went on a single bid because "the art market was over." Interesting to see how the prices have gone up since then.