Jho Low sells artworks at a loss

Sources close to the sale say the pieces by Picasso, Basquiat and Monet were pledged as part of the collateral for a loan of about $100 million.

PETALING JAYA: Penang-born Low Taek Jho, 34, infamous for his flamboyant lifestyle and links to the family of Prime Minister Najib Razak and debt-riddled 1Malaysia Development Berhad, is reported to have made a loss in the sale of three artworks at Sotheby’s this month.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Jho Low, as he is also known, sold artworks by Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Claude Monet for US$54 million, with what the business news portal described as “unusually steep losses” on at least two.

Information on the sale was derived from three people familiar with the matter.

The 1935 painting by Picasso, a portrait of the artist’s lover, Marie-Therese Walter sold for US$27.6 million although the selling price back in November 2013 was 45 per cent higher.

Basquiat’s 1982 oilstick drawing “Untitled (Head of Madman)” got Low 33 per cent less than its sale price in November 2013 while Monet’s painting of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice also sold for much less than its pre-sale estimate.

It was revealed by two of the sources that all three artworks were pledged as part of the collateral for a loan of about US$100 million from Sotheby’s Financial Services.

Low, who rubs shoulders with the likes of Paris Hilton, Alicia Keyes and Leonardo DiCaprio, began collecting art in 2013 and 2014 when on a “shopping spree for trophy pieces”, Bloomberg said.

At the time, it was unknown if he snapped up the artworks using his own money, family money or clients’ money for those looking to invest.

Bloomberg commented on how Low’s losses on his artwork were telling of the top-tier art market and quoted David Nash, co-owner of Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery in New York as saying, “The auction market is quite unforgiving. The buyers don’t like to see things come back so quickly. They don’t find the works so attractive the second time around.

“A lot of the resistance has to do with the fact that the work is no longer fresh. A lot of it has to do with the perception that the seller has overpaid.”

Low did however make a killing throughout last year with the sales of his artworks i.e. a 10-foot-tall Gerhard Richter abstract painting; an 8-foot-tall yellow and blue Mark Rothko painting and a black, punctured, egg-shaped canvas by Lucio Fontana.

Still in his possession is Basquiat’s 6-foot-tall and 7-foot-wide painting, “Dustheads” that is worth a tidy fortune.