Picasso, Warhol, Monet still hot at cool auctions

New York

GLOBAL art auctions cooled in the first half of 2015 but collectors chasing Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Andy Warhol ignored the slowdown.

Auction results slid 5.8 per cent to US$8.1 billion from the same period in 2014 because of weak sales in China, the UK, France and Germany, according to figures released on Wednesday by New York-based Artnet. Yet, prices soared for trophy works as a smaller number of high value transactions dominated.