Hirst, Koons feel the pain

Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, the stars of the art boom, were deposed as auction bestsellers in 2009 as prices for some of their works fell 50%. It may take much of the next decade before their works return to record prices, dealers say.

Billionaire collectors shunned “noughties” favorites in the current decade’s closing year, preferring 20th century Modernist classics, Art Deco furniture, Old Masters and Chinese artworks. Contemporary-art auction sales dropped 75% this year as sellers were no longer guaranteed minimum prices.

“Right now, people are nursing significant losses on Hirst,” Philip Hoffman, chief executive of the London-based Fine Art Fund, said in an interview. “They’re reluctant to sell until prices start to rise again.”

In 2009, nine pieces by Koons fetched more than $1 million at auction, half as many as in 2008, according to the database ArtNet. Twice that number sold for more than $1 million in 2008.

Thirty-two Hirsts sold for more than $1.6 million at auctions in 2008, said ArtNet.

Only one piece by Hirst sold at auction for more than that in 2009, said ArtNet.

“Hirst will come back,” Robert Sandelson, a London dealer, said of Britain’s richest artist. “In the short term, overproduction has been a problem. That didn’t harm the Andy Warhol market in the end. In the future, Hirst’s works, like Warhol’s, will be bought as classics.”

“Hirst made his mark on art history,” said Hoffman. “But in 30 years’ time, collectors are going to focus on the earlier works rather than the pieces he made when he had a lot of assistants. At the moment, the prices of Hirst’s earlier works are probably unchanged. I’m not sure I’d invest in a new work that was sold in 2008.”

Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News