Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Bidding began this week on an online sale that could raise at least $1mn for Kamala Harris’s US presidential campaign. More than 160 artists including Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer and Katherine Bernhardt have committed to donate to Artists for Kamala, with all proceeds to benefit the Harris Victory Fund. An initial sale of 54 works is currently on Artsy (until October 8), most via auction with 13 at fixed prices. At time of writing, bids were already coming in for Amy Sherald’s screenprint, “As Soft As She Is . . . ” (2023, valued at $50,000) and Christine Sun Kim’s “Site Pyramid” (2020, $9,000 estimate). Koons’s 2024 sculpture “American Flag (Gazing Balls)” has the highest estimate, at $300,000.Bernhardt has donated her Pink Panther painting, “Man in the Mirror” (2024), estimated at $110,000. “So many important issues are at stake in this election, including healthcare, reproductive rights and our democracy itself,” she says. Further works are offered on the campaign website, artistsforkamala.org.Concerns over Sotheby’s high levels of debt under owner Patrick Drahi are not doing a jittery art market any favours, but other industry players are keen to separate the two situations. “What is going on at Sotheby’s is not because of the market. They have made some debatable business decisions, and it is unfortunate that these have come at a time when the market is in a different place,” says art adviser Emily Tsingou, citing wars, elections and high interest rates. “There are opportunities though, they’re just not across the board.” She acknowledges that total auction values have fallen considerably this year, but adds “auctions are public, so difficult to ignore, but they are not everything”. (These sales generally account for about 50 per cent of the annual market value).Earlier this year, Sotheby’s reported $1.8bn of long-term debt, up from $1bn from when Drahi helped finance his $3.7bn purchase of the auction house in 2019. Reports since of deferred incentive payments to staff make for uncomfortable reading and Sotheby’s is not commenting on its remuneration situation. Fixed debt is now $1.65bn, a spokesperson says, and they point to the auction house’s announced $1bn injection from Drahi and the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign fund, ADQ, an investment described as “fully on track to close in the fourth quarter as planned”. Many in the market say that trade is still healthy, although the proof of the pudding will be after the forthcoming season of sales and art fairs, starting in London next week. Both Sotheby’s and Christie’s have announced some prestigious collections for their November auctions in New York, including of the beauty businesswoman Sydell Miller and designer Mica Ertegun. Auctioneers Adrien Meyer and Georgina Hilton were among the Christie’s staff who wore a black tie to mark its first evening sale of Modern and contemporary art in Hong Kong’s Henderson building on September 26. The auction itself was more solid than spectacular, making a total just within estimate of HK$883mn (US$114m; HK$1bn with fees). Top lots were two Impressionist paintings, which accounted for much of the total: Claude Monet’s “Nymphéas” (c1897-1899) for HK$200mn (HK$233mn with fees) and Vincent van Gogh’s “Les canots amarrés” (1887) that went below estimate for HK$215mn (HK$251mn with fees).Among the 12 (of 43) works that sold above estimates was “State of Bloom” (2021), a painting that addresses the impact of wealth on society, by the Filipino artist Ronald Ventura (b1973). This sold for nearly 11 times its high estimate, for an artist record of HK$30mn (US$3.9mn, HK$37mn with fees). “Ventura is very celebrated in south-east Asia,” says Cristian Albu, Christie’s head of 20th and 21st Century Art, Asia Pacific — the work sold over the phone via a Singapore-based specialist. Albu describes the general appetite for art as “very, very selective, definitely a buyer’s market”.The art advisory and valuation firm Gurr Johns, currently in London and New York, will officially open in Paris on October 14, just ahead of this year’s Art Basel Paris (Grand Palais, October 18-20). “It’s pretty obvious that the art market is gradually moving that way,” says executive chair Harry Smith of the decision. “London is not washed up, but it is isolated. It isn’t the US or Europe and has tax barriers between both.” He has hired Anika Guntrum, previously 28 years at Christie’s and in Paris since 2002, as managing director, Europe, based in its new rue La Boétie office and gallery space.Meanwhile, bucking the latest trend, the French mega-gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin will open in a 350 sq m space in London’s Claridge’s hotel next year. The gallery posted on Instagram that it is “seeking a director with a minimum of 10 years’ experience in a London gallery”.Alison Jacques marks her exclusive representation of the estate of the Guyanese painter, sculptor and ceramicist Donald Locke with a solo booth at Frieze Masters next week (Regent’s Park, October 9-13). Locke, whose other claim to fame is that his son is the celebrated artist Hew Locke, was very much an artist in his own right, with one of his Plantation Series sculptures among Tate Britain’s permanent display. Jacques’s representation comes ahead of the artist’s UK touring show next year, at Spike Island, Bristol, then Camden Arts Centre, London, and Ikon Gallery in Birmingham.Locke grew up when Guyana was still a British colony and Jacques’s booth will include work from Plantation, which explores systems of labour. She also brings Locke’s ceramics — “one of his passions”, which he studied at the UK’s Bath Academy of Art — as well as paintings and collages from the 1990s (booth price range $18,000-$75,000). Jacques describes Locke as “an important figure who explored themes of heritage and post-colonial identity, a precursor to the work of many artists today”.Find out about our latest stories first — follow FTWeekend on Instagram and X, and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen
