This sale was the largest transaction made through Loic Guzier’s Fair Warning and a record purchase in this manner.
On June 20, 2020, Loic Gouzer, an art dealer and a former specialist at Christie’s auction house, announced the launch of ArtTech startup. This is a Fair Warning application providing a limited number of members with the opportunity to purchase individual artwork. The information about the works appears in the mobile application just a few days before the start of the sale. And the opportunity for purchase opens only for a limited period of time. In this way, according to the organizers of the project, the feeling of the novelty of the lot and the excitement of participating in the auction are preserved.
And now, about a month after the launch of the startup, the first impressive result was achieved. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 work Untitled changed ownership for an impressive $ 10.8 million. This is an absolute record price for a work of art sold through a mobile app.
According to Gouzer, during the work of the project (one new lot is displayed every week), several large sales have already been made. Basquiat was among the lots sold through Fair Warning:
- print by David Hammons (price: $ 1.3 million, estimate: $ 500-700 thousand);
- the work of Steven Parrino (price: $ 977.5 thousand, estimate: $ 650-700 thousand);
- the first of the lots appearing in the app, a portrait by the contemporary Canadian artist Stephen Sharer called Synthist, which went to an unnamed European collector for $ 437 thousand (estimate: $ 180-250 thousand).
This is not the first price record of the art market in which Loic Gouzer is involved. In 2017, he was among the organizers of the legendary auction at which the Savior of the World was sold. However, the success of his startup is a clear sign for the art market about the opportunities for growth and development in this direction.
