Picasso’s “Femme au Chapeau” was at auction, but private sales are rising.

By CAROL VOGEL


During good times, an auction is the obvious choice for any collector wanting to sell a work of art. But as the recession takes its toll, many collectors have changed strategies and retreated to the more hidden, and potentially less lucrative, world of private sales.

If they do not have to, fewer collectors are putting their holdings up for auction at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, where prices and profits have plummeted. But executives at both houses say business in their private-sale departments has more than doubled in recent months.

“The game has definitely shifted,”said Christopher Eykyn, a former head of Impressionist and modern art at Christie’s who is now a dealer in New York.“A lot of clients don’t want to be seen selling, so the private route is suddenly more attractive.”

Matthew Marks, a New York dealer, has noticed that sellers“just aren’t into gambling anymore and auctions are no longer a sure thing.”Gone are the new rich - the Russian oligarchs and oil-rich Middle Easterners, as well as the American hedge fund magnates - who in flush times were willing to pay any price. Gone too are the Europeans who were active when the weak dollar made their purchases seem cheap.

So secret are private transactions that confidentiality agreements bind the dealers and auction-house executives. Still, the art world loves to talk, and in recent months a number of expensive paintings have quietly changed hands, including a 1970s de Kooning abstract canvas that sold for around $30 million; a Cy Twombly“Blackboard” painting for $12 million; one of Gerhard Richter’s“Color Charts” for $18 million; and Jeff Koons’s“Hanging Heart Violet”sculpture for $11 million.

Today’s buyers tend to be older collectors who bowed out of the market when prices began escalating. These patrons have far more conservative tastes, preferring names like Alexander Calder or Robert Ryman rather than younger artists like Takashi Murakami or Damien Hirst who have now lost some 50 percent of their value.

Pricing has been a kind of tug of war between sellers and bargain hunters.“Nobody knows where the market is right now,”said Tobias Meyer, head of Sotheby’s contemporary- art department worldwide.“If it’s not something totally unique, the problem is figuring out what it’s worth when something comparable could come up at auction for 50 percent less.”

Indeed sales are including works that had been offered in the private market at prices significantly higher than their estimates from the auction houses. Among them are a late Picasso canvas owned by Julian Schnabel at Christie’s.

Mr. Marks is grateful for the privatesales business.“I’m not asking sellers any questions,”he said.“I’m just happy the phone is ringing.”