Wealthy art investors unfazed by emerging market difficulties

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Pressure on emerging markets has yet to douse the appetite of wealthy collectors for high-priced paintings and sculptures, art experts said ahead of London’s Frieze fair.

As international collectors, dealers and enthusiasts descend on the capital for the showcase exhibition in Regent’s Park, the sector’s optimism has been tested by difficult conditions in emerging market economies following China’s devaluation earlier this summer.

Before the fair’s opening on Tuesday to selected guests, Clare McAndrew, an economist specialising in the art market, said that any impact on the sector had yet to make itself felt, with Chinese buyers still spending overseas in spite of problems at home.

“Even if there is less money for luxury spending, there’s commonly a substitution effect when times are tough: people buy fewer designer bags and instead buy things they think have a tangible value,” said the director of Arts Economics.

Victoria Siddall, Frieze’s director, said that continued Asian enthusiasm was reflected in record numbers of Beijing collectors attending, while acceptances at Frieze-organised VIP events at London’s big museums were also at a record high. “For many people art collecting can be all-consuming — it’s not necessarily the first thing to be cut,” she said.

Frieze London, the contemporary art fair, and its sister show Frieze Masters, which showcases ancient art, Old Masters and postwar works, lead a frenzied week of art activity in the capital. Six other fairs are taking place, including 1:54 in Somerset House, Pad London in Berkeley Square and The Other Art Fair in east London, while many galleries will stay open into the night.

As well as holding sales during the week, the leading auction houses are capitalising on the buyer-rich environment to show works destined for the big New York sales in November. At its London showrooms, Christie’s is showing Amedeo Modigliani’s “Nu couché (Reclining Nude)” which, if it attains its estimate of $100m, will far exceed the $70.7m record for the artist at auction.

But Melanie Gerlis of the Art Newspaper said that she detected a nervousness among buyers and dealers, not helped by the sheer volume of work on offer. “There’s a paradox of choice,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like an environment in which money will be spent like free-flowing water.”

The number of galleries exhibiting works is largely flat on last year’s levels, with 164 at the contemporary fair, up from 162, and 130 at Frieze Masters up from 127 last year.

The fair does not publish sales figures, arguing that gallerists are not obliged to report their takings to the organisers. But the total value of art on sale across the London auctions, Frieze London and Frieze Masters has been roughly estimated by the Art Newspaper at £1.6bn — similar to last year’s total.