Frank Cohen's contemporary collection gets set for sale Down Under
British collector, Frank Cohen, or “the Saatchi of the North” as he hates to be called, is always up for something unexpected, and his next move is no exception. This week, a sampling of 80 works from his contemporary art collection goes on view at a 30,000 square foot film studio in Fulham, west London, prior to going to auction in September - not with Sotheby’s or Christie’s in London or New York, but 10,550 miles away with relative newcomers, Mossgreen, in Melbourne, Australia.
The publicity doesn’t mention Cohen’s name (“a British collector who wishes to remain anonymous”, says Mossgreen), but there is no mistaking where it has come from. Most of the works, by a mixture of Chinese, Korean, Indian, European and American artists, have been exhibited at Cohen’s Initial Access gallery in Wolverhampton, or in venues such as the Royal Academy, or his briefly active Dairy Arts Centre in London. Mossgreen, needless to say, is delighted.
The sale could not only bring in an extra £5m, but could put them on the map as the most adventurous contemporary art auctioneer in Australia. Not one Australian artist is in the sale. Already, Mossgreen is challenging for pole position Down Under with an auction total of 109.5 million Australian dollars (£69.5m) over the last three and-a-half years, and has built a reputation as the most successful auctioneer there for single owner collections.
One of their strongest suits has been Asian art, which could stand them in good stead for this sale where half the works are by Asian artists. “20 percent of our Asian art buyers are Chinese who have bought property here,” says CEO Paul Sumner. “Australian buyers are also thinking more internationally.”
The selections from Cohen’s collection reminds us how, 10 years ago, contemporary Chinese and Indian art was all the rage. Cohen and Charles Saatchi were vying for attention with consecutive shows entitled “Passage to India” and “Facing East” (Cohen) or “The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Revolution Continues; New Art from China”, (Saatchi).
One of the highlights from Cohen’s Chinese shows is Zeng Fanzhi’s Sky no 7, from a series of expressionist figure paintings that have fetched over £1m, which is estimated at £560,000. Another is Fang Lijun’s large triptych of ghostly faces in cloudy skies at £400,000. The artists’ record is £4.8m.
Cohen was obviously thinking big when he was buying as the scale is often beyond the domestic. In the Indian section, Thukral and Tagra’s Disneyesque painting, “Coming Soon to Your Neighbourhood” is nearly eight metres wide (£40,000); Sudasharn Shetty’s skeletal “Double Cow” sculpture (£32,000) takes up three metres each way, and Jitish Kallat’s equally skeletal car, “Collidonthus”, (£80,000) will need a decent size garage to stay in.
Of the European and American works to stand out is an almost three metre square patchwork of money bags by Danish artist Sergej Jensen. A slightly larger version of this sold in New York four years ago for £170,000, while Cohen’s is priced at just £80,000.
Cohen says he had five warehouses full of contemporary art and is reducing them to two. “I’m 74 now,” he says, “and have had enough of putting on constant exhibitions.” He continues to be interested in select, established contemporary artists like Georg Baselitz and David Hammons, and in exploring more historic modern British art, but has drawn a line under the very broad range of new and up and coming artists.
His Dairy Art Centre project has ended and the site is undergoing archaeological survey prior to redevelopment. “I will be putting the proceeds of the auction towards developing the arts in Manchester,” he says.
One thing he is resigned to, though, is that he will “probably lose money” on the Australian sales. From c.2007, when he and Saatchi were buying contemporary Chinese and Indian art, often by the same artists, there was a sense of feverish speculation that drove prices up. Indian artists particularly were carried upwards on a wave of art investment funds. But after the credit crunch, prices tumbled, and have not yet recovered.
Some of the works in the sale have been at auction before and not sold. That does not mean the art is any less interesting or exciting. A cartoonish semi-embroidered painting, Johnny 3D, by Iranian artist, Fahrad Moshiri, was bought in 2009 when such works could sell at auction for £200,000. Two years ago, Phillips could not sell it with a £100,000 estimate; now Mossgreen has it at a reasonable £64,000. The market is still there, but offering opportunities now at a more attractive level.
