Major fine art auction falls short of expectations

One of the largest auctions of fine art in Slovenia has fallen well short of expectations with only ten of the 38 works of art on offer changing hands for a total of €179,000 where none fetched the values desired by the sellers, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

Organised by the Sloart Gallery, the auction at the Grand Plaza Hotel in Ljubljana on 7 December featured works by most prominent Slovenian artists from the periods of Expressionism, Impressionism, and Modernism.

Ahead of the auction, the gallery said the total estimated value of the artworks put up for auction exceeded €1 million. In fact, it fetched €179,000 in total, including the 20% auction charge on the hammer prices.

The gallery is "moderately satisfied" with the outcome. "We are neither too disappointed nor too happy. It was the first auction and some things need correcting. But we got a feedback," Damjan Kosec, the gallery's director, told the Slovenian Press Agency.

Some of the artworks were either overvalued or the expectations of the owners and buyers differed, he said, adding that the main problem of the Slovenian art market was that there are simply no reference prices, as there are no public auctions.

The most admired painting at the auction, Portrait of Mary Paumgarten and Josipine Wenckheim, née Baumgartner by the popular Realist artist Ivana Kobilca (1861-1926), was sold for €75,000, well below the estimated value of €90,000-120,000.

The pastel initially did not sell but then the seller agreed to lower the reserve price of €80,000 to meet the bid of €75,000 made by a bidder, Kosec explained, adding that it was not unusual for a work to be re-entered during the auctioning process.