No Wonder Christie's Axed Motorcars

Tonight Christie's capitalized on the interest in its Post-War and Contemporary art auction to make available a watch-only webcast of the sale, something it usually requires an active bidder number to do.
After watching Christopher Burge sell 62 of the 67 lots offered (92.5%) in just about two hours the business judgement which resulted in axing the Motorcars Department is apparent. The sale brought in $287,930,000 hammer and about $322,481,600 with a 12% buyer's premium. 22.6% of the lots sold under the low estimate, 48.4% sold over the high estimate, leaving only about 29% of the lots to sell within the pre-sale range.
Now, admittedly it takes a huge effort, massive amounts of capital and an immense overhead structure of specialists, managers, client services and other staff to pull off 67 consignments that are worth nearly a third of a billion dollars. To support it, on the other hand, Christie's earned something like $50 million from commissions and an unknown amount from profits and profit-sharing on guaranteed lots.
Some of the transactions were breathtaking, like Andy Warhol's "Muhammad Ali". Estimated at $2-3 million, the auction room was holding its collective breath when it sold for $8.8 million to a phone bidder. Warhol's "Liz", on the other hand, sold earlier in the sale for $21 million despite being estimated at $25-30 million.
What I know about the art market can be written on a small paper, but I do know enough to see that this market is very healthy, there are plenty of bidders and they have plenty of money, both collectively and individually.
Christie's made the decision to employ its resources and attention selling art rather than selling old motorcars.
On the strength of tonight's sale it's impossible to argue with that decision.

RM Does It In London

In its first auction in England, RM Auctions parlayed three exceptional collections (Bernie Ecclestone, Giuseppe Prevosti and Abba Kogan) into the top-grossing collector car sale ever held in the UK.
They did it not by a whisker, or even a step, but rather by nearly a factor of three more than the next highest-grossing sale held in the UK (Bonhams Goodwood Revival sale in 2004), with $37,857,923 in car lots sold, a 91.67% sale rate (77 sold of 84 offered). 29.9% of the lots sold were hammered down at a bid greater than RM's pre-sale high estimate.
Top lot of the sale was the 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster from Bernie Ecclestone's collection which hammered sold at an astounding £3,550,000, £3,905,000 with commission and $8,200,606 at the current exchange rate. In dollars (converted at the time of the sale) that is the third highest individual collector car transaction ever. The others were RM's recent sale of the Ferrari 330 TRI/LM in May for $9,277,126 and Christie's fabled sale of the Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe in 1987 for 5.5 million pounds sterling, $9,764,585 at the exchange rate at the time.
Exchange rates, and particularly the dollar's current swoon against the pound and Euro, complicate the comparison somewhat but nowhere near enough to change the qualitative conclusion that Rob Myers and the RM Auctions crew had a heck of a debut in London.