🔥 Quiet Wins Only + Luigi Ontani

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HEY Y’ALL!

Thanks for all the great feedback on the Lee Ufan piece I shared last day!

🔥 ICYMI – Catchs from the Last Week:

1. Lee Ufan, In Milano 3, 1992 - priced at £6,500

2. Sola Olulode, Everyday Gets Hotter Than The One Before, 2021 - priced at £10,000

3. Cece Philips, Cheek to Cheek, 2022 - priced at at £12,500

Today we have a Luigi Ontani from ’82 that screams cult classic: rare, priced smart. Plus, $100M blue-chips move, and Phillips quietly eats dust.

-Today’s Catch-

Luigi Ontani

💭 My 2 Cents: “Artiglio Cartiglio” is Ontani doing what Ontani does best; turning high-camp self-portraiture into gold-framed myth. Literally. Made in 1982, it’s peak Ontani: the color photo, the theatrical pose, the custom golden frame (yes, by the artist himself). If you’re looking for ‘serious’ conceptual art, look elsewhere. But if you want a historical slice of performance-meets-photography from one of Italy’s weirdest and most respected chameleons? This is it. It’s niche, yes. But that niche happens to be a sweet spot for collectors who know what they’re doing.

🔑 Key Numbers: Ontani’s vintage colored photos from the '70s–'80s sit comfortably in the €10K–30K zone. His best auction year lately? 2024, with a 97.7% YoY jump in average price and a 2.8x hammer ratio. That’s combustion. Pieces from the ‘80s have a historical premium and are selling at a 7–12% average above their estimates. Ontani's market is small but efficient: 85% sell-through rate and strong international demand from Milan to Hong Kong.

🧠 Why It’s a Smart Pick: You're not buying just a photo, you’re buying Ontani mid-transformation, framed in gold like the saint of identity games. In a market saturated with cookie-cutter abstraction, this is a rare, artist-framed, vintage Ontani from his golden era. Quiet buy, long-term hold.

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Here’s what a collector shared with me this week:

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-In a Minute-

🔥 Words I Like: alpha, exit, stealth-mode

Quiet Wins Only

There’s a new kind of bravado in the air, and it smells like risk-aversion dressed up in tailored suits and Basel VIP passes.

Collectors aren't buying more…they're buying better. That’s the word coming out of Hong Kong after a full week of quiet kills across Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips.

Christie’s took the lead with $100.4M in modern and contemporary sales, including a $14.5M Basquiat, two Magrittes, a $6.3M Zao Wou-Ki, and Kusama’s Pumpkin at $5M.
The Renoir landscape did $4.5M, and the day sale crowned Nara, Katz, Ay Tjoe, Claude Lalanne, and more museum-likely names.

Sotheby’s followed with $47M, headlined by a Chagall at $4.3M, a Renoir nude at $3M, and Henry Moore just below. Day sale winners included Zóbel, Shiraga, Camille Claudel—solid, no surprises.

Phillips tried to shake things up with Rokkaku, Issy Wood, Condo, and Li Hei Di… but totaled just $2.8M. That’s your signal.

The new flex is quiet money and tunnel-vision. Just one killer work per collector, thank you very much.

Everyone’s dodging hype and chasing spreadsheet-proof certainty, and honestly? That’s not dumb.

When your kid’s international school fees are up 12% and China’s economy is on slow drip, even the über-rich feel it.

So what’s moving? Blue-chip, name-brand, museum-proven stuff. Tick the boxes. Keep the receipts.

If you're still buying “emerging” like it's 2021, you're gonna feel the burn.

Unless you really know what you're doing, stay defensive.

This is portfolio audit season. Sell the filler. Reinforce the anchors.
Ask your advisor one thing: Would a museum buy this tomorrow? If not, pass.

And if you're looking to move capital into Asia, wait for Shanghai.

-Whenever You Are Ready-

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See you soon!

-Alvaro (@theartmarketguy)

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Disclaimer

Not financial advice. Frame&Flame is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions.