At Sotheby's in New York last week, the cover lot in this season's Impressionist and modern art evening auction was something of a novelty. Young Arab by Kees Van Dongen (1910) is an Egyptian figure in a style reminiscent of Henri Matisse's fauve and North African works, nothing like Van Dongen's signature pictures of gaudy women. Its asking price of $7 million to $10 million (Dh25.7m to Dh36.7m), was also a novelty for this artist.
The painting sold over the telephone for $13.8m, setting a record for a work by the artist at auction and defying what was thought to be a persistent torpor in the auction market. Sotheby's sold 56 of the 66 works offered at the auction.
The sale totalled nearly $182m, surpassing the auction house's high estimate of $163m. As auction records for two artists were achieved, sceptics were forced to reconsider dark forecasts for the art trade.
Is the recession over, as far as the art market is concerned? It would be premature to declare the sick patient cured, but the signs at Sotheby's pointed to a recovery.
Across town at its auction rival, Christie's International, the signs were more discouraging. Just one night earlier, November 3, a considerably smaller sale of 40 lots - 26 fewer than at Sotheby's - brought $65.7m. Twelve of those lots went unsold.
The Christie's sale focused on the kind of pretty and classic work that might weather a general recession. The auction's top lot was Danseuses by Edgar Degas from 1896, which brought $10.7m including the buyer's commission.
Industry insiders assume that the painting found an Asian buyer, since the phone bid for it was made through the deputy chairman of Christie's in Asia. The demand for this kind of picture was assumed to come from China, where collectors have had fewer chances to buy Impressionist works.
Also selling at Christie's were a cast of Le Baiser (The Kiss) by Auguste Rodin, which brought $6.3m, and Claude Monet's 1901 village landscape, Vétheuil, effet de soleil, which fetched $5.4m.
Still, paintings by Pissarro and Matisse went unsold at Christie's, and specialists explained soberly that tough economic times meant that fewer desirable works of art were available to fill major sales by both Christie's and Sotheby's.
Yet at Sotheby's, the strong and confident bidding seemed indiscriminate. The sale started with Salvador Dali's surrealist Giraffe on Fire, a gouache and charcoal work on paper. Sotheby's staffers who took telephone bids gesticulated wildly for attention like commodities traders on a hectic day. The picture brought $1.8m, with premium, more than 10 times its low estimate, setting the tone for the evening.
"We put together a sale carefully, that reflects the market as we know it," said Simon Shaw, the head of Sotheby's Impressionist and modern art department in New York. Shaw noted that estimates for the same works would have been much higher in 2006, the last year that a Sotheby's evening sale exceeded the firm's high estimates.
"This is the first season where people totally understood the economy and our estimates," said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's worldwide head of contemporary art, who was the evening's auctioneer. "Did we have to estimate things conservatively? There's no question."
One lot's estimate seemed high for difficult economic times. Sotheby's valued Andre Derain's 1905 fauve harbour scene, Barques au Port de Collioure, at $6m to $8m. Yet bidding took the price to just over $14m. The successful bidder turned out to be Guy Bennett, the former head of Christie's Impressionist and modern art department in New York. After the sale, a contented Bennett declined to discuss the painting or disclose for whom he had bid.
Specialists at Sotheby's were delighted that a former rival had helped fuel the evening's buying energy. "Some of our best clients turn out to be specialists who used to work for the competition," said David Norman, Sotheby's executive vice president and co-chairman, who noted that the absence of aggressive competition and guarantees for most of the evening's lots had kept costs down.
"People are looking for comfort," said one dealer watching the sale led by Alberto Giacometti's unsettling existentialist sculpture l'Homme Qui Chavire (Falling Man), which brought a sense of irony to the evening as bids rose to more than $19m. Cast in 1951, the delicate figure embodied uncertainty in the wake of the Second World War. In New York, it dispelled unease among buyers who may still be at a loss to explain why the market is bouncing back.
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
Company name: Play:Date
Launched: March 2017 on UAE Mother’s Day
Founder: Shamim Kassibawi
Based: Dubai with operations in the UAE and US
Sector: Tech
Size: 20 employees
Stage of funding: Seed
Investors: Three founders (two silent co-founders) and one venture capital fund
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
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UAE and Russia in numbers
UAE-Russia ties stretch back 48 years
Trade between the UAE and Russia reached Dh12.5 bn in 2018
More than 3,000 Russian companies are registered in the UAE
Around 40,000 Russians live in the UAE
The number of Russian tourists travelling to the UAE will increase to 12 percent to reach 1.6 million in 2023
Important questions to consider
1. Where on the plane does my pet travel?
There are different types of travel available for pets:
- Manifest cargo
- Excess luggage in the hold
- Excess luggage in the cabin
Each option is safe. The feasibility of each option is based on the size and breed of your pet, the airline they are traveling on and country they are travelling to.
2. What is the difference between my pet traveling as manifest cargo or as excess luggage?
If traveling as manifest cargo, your pet is traveling in the front hold of the plane and can travel with or without you being on the same plane. The cost of your pets travel is based on volumetric weight, in other words, the size of their travel crate.
If traveling as excess luggage, your pet will be in the rear hold of the plane and must be traveling under the ticket of a human passenger. The cost of your pets travel is based on the actual (combined) weight of your pet in their crate.
3. What happens when my pet arrives in the country they are traveling to?
As soon as the flight arrives, your pet will be taken from the plane straight to the airport terminal.
If your pet is traveling as excess luggage, they will taken to the oversized luggage area in the arrival hall. Once you clear passport control, you will be able to collect them at the same time as your normal luggage. As you exit the airport via the ‘something to declare’ customs channel you will be asked to present your pets travel paperwork to the customs official and / or the vet on duty.
If your pet is traveling as manifest cargo, they will be taken to the Animal Reception Centre. There, their documentation will be reviewed by the staff of the ARC to ensure all is in order. At the same time, relevant customs formalities will be completed by staff based at the arriving airport.
4. How long does the travel paperwork and other travel preparations take?
This depends entirely on the location that your pet is traveling to. Your pet relocation compnay will provide you with an accurate timeline of how long the relevant preparations will take and at what point in the process the various steps must be taken.
In some cases they can get your pet ‘travel ready’ in a few days. In others it can be up to six months or more.
5. What vaccinations does my pet need to travel?
Regardless of where your pet is traveling, they will need certain vaccinations. The exact vaccinations they need are entirely dependent on the location they are traveling to. The one vaccination that is mandatory for every country your pet may travel to is a rabies vaccination.
Other vaccinations may also be necessary. These will be advised to you as relevant. In every situation, it is essential to keep your vaccinations current and to not miss a due date, even by one day. To do so could severely hinder your pets travel plans.
Source: Pawsome Pets UAE
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5