A large-scale Jackson Pollock drip painting titled, “Number 7A, 1948.”Crystal Lau | CNBCA version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.Nearly $2 billion worth of art will come up for auction in New York over the next week, marking the biggest test of the art market since the start of the Iran war.The major auction houses are counting on blockbuster works from famed collections to carry the market past the gloom of geopolitical conflict and volatile financial markets. Despite growing fears of a slowing global economy and a potential lack of buyers from the Middle East, dealers and art experts say the rapid rebound in the art market that began last fall shows no signs of slowing.”Buyers are engaged and looking for opportunity right now,” said Philip Hoffman, chairman and founder of Fine Art Group, the art advisory and sales agency.Hoffman said today’s megacollectors, like Ken Griffin, Steve Cohen, Jeff Bezos and the new crowd of Asian tech billionaires, have seen their fortunes skyrocket in recent years and are looking for long-term stores of value.”They’re sitting on massive amounts of liquidity,” he said. “To them, this money is peanuts.”Three works coming to auction are estimated to sell for up to $100 million, and over 20 works are estimated at $20 million or more, more than triple last year’s total. Sales for the three auction houses are expected to total between $1.8 billion and $2.6 billion, according to ArtTactic. At $2 billion, the sales would nearly double last year’s total.[embedded content]Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas, said the crowds lining up to see the works for sale are the largest in nearly a decade.”There is an energy and buzz in the rooms that we haven’t seen in a while,” he said. “It’s difficult to tease out whether that’s about the quality of the works of art, or the world situation and art is a refuge, or art is a hedge. It’s tough to tell. We’ll know in a week or two.”The sa …
