Why France’s art market is flourishing

From the March 2024 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.

There was a clear correction in the art market in 2023 – auction sales of Old Masters, Impressionist, modern and contemporary art at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips slumped by an eye-watering 27 per cent, according to the data analysis firm ArtTactic. France was not spared and the second half of last year saw a slowdown among the major players, although some of the smaller houses, such as Bonhams Cornette de St Cyr, Ader, Tajan and Piasa, showed positive results.

France has long been a minnow in the global pool, with about 7 per cent of the world market, putting it in fourth place behind the big fish: the United States, China and the United Kingdom. But the French argue that their lowly placing is partly because sectors in which they are strong are not the big-ticket items – that is, modern, Impressionist and contemporary art.

Among fields where the French are still active collectors are Old Master drawings, design, 18th-century furniture, letters and manuscripts. According to specialists, there are also collectors for decorative arts and furniture from the Haute Époque. Christie’s moved its Old Master drawings, Asian art and design sales to Paris last year. ‘The markets for these sectors are centred in Paris rather than in London now,’ explains Cécile Verdier, president of Christie’s France, ‘and France has a rich seam of experts, restorers and specialist dealers.’

In 2023 Christie’s hit the jackpot with one design piece, François-Xavier Lalanne’s Rhinocrétaire I from 1964. Bought that year by Jeanine de Goldschmidt, partner of the famed art critic Pierre Restany, it had remained in the family ever since. It came to auction in October 2023 with an estimate of €4m–€6m – and made a stunning €18.3m.

Saint Holding a Cross (n.d.), Domenico Beccafumi. Bonhams Cornette de St Cyr, €241,700

While this item had a clear provenance, many pieces do not. Verdier points out that the French system of inheritance under the Code Napoléon, which mandates the division of assets between heirs after a death, means that ‘Each generation has to split up everything, things get dispersed. Some come on the market immediately, others are stuffed in the attics and basements of manors and chateaux, and get forgotten. There is still a reservoir of discoveries to be made.’

Finding such hidden treasures is the forte of the French specialist Eric Turquin, an art historian who works on a commission basis for a number of auctioneers. ‘France has a long tradition of collecting Old Master drawings, and of course has the leading fair in the field, the Salon du Dessin,’ he says, ‘and there is a group of very active collectors here.’

Turquin explains, ‘In the 18th century, the pinnacle of French power and wealth, there were many collectors, of Dutch, French, Italian drawings, and extraordinary collections were built up. But after the French Revolution, everything changed, including taste, and the 19th-century collector preferred the art of the revolution – an art that was virile, violent. Artists such as Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard went completely out of fashion. Provenance and attributions were lost.’

As an illustration, he points to two Fragonards which had initially belonged to the same collector but were separated in the early 20th century and lost their attributions. One, Young Girl in a Hat (1770–75), sold with auctioneers Boisgirard-Antonini for five times its estimate at €3.3m last December. The other, A Philosopher Reading (c. 1768–70), made €7.7m at Enchères Champagne auction house in 2022. Neither vendor was aware that the works had initially come from the same source; Turquin was able to re-establish their provenance and author.