Market News: First Ai Weiwei seeds on the market

Ever since Chinese artist Ai Weiwei opened his installation of 100 million (150 tonnes) ceramic sunflower seeds in Tate’s Turbine Hall, there has been speculation as to when a handful might turn up on eBay, and at what price.

So far the only sighting has been a single seed offered on Facebook for £1. So could the Tate installation really be worth £100 million?

The first clue will come at Sotheby’s on February 15 when a 100-kilogram pile of seeds by Ai Weiwei (below) is to be offered with an estimate of £80,000 to £120,000. Apparently, the seeds are valued by weight, so, if it sells at the mid estimate, that would make the seeds worth £1,000 pounds a kilogram, and the Tate installation a whopping £150 million.

Jens Farschou, the Copenhagen dealer who represents the artist, says that one day this could be considered one of the most important artworks of the decade, so my estimate, he concedes, “might well be correct”.

The sunflower seeds are part of a fortnight of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art sales in London that are estimated to bring between £333 million and £434 million at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips de Pury & Co next month. These estimates are entirely consistent with the recovery. They are more than double the amount taken during the equivalent sales of February 2009, when the market was in a state of bewilderment, but show no great increase in expectations since last year when the February auctions ran up £383 million of sales, though the estimates then were much lower at £232 million to £324 million. Public viewings begin on February 1, when Sotheby’s will have its star paintings by Picasso and Bacon in the galleries.

The purchase by Falmouth Art Gallery of a work by Tacita Dean, the British artist and film-maker who was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1998 and has been commissioned to make a work for Tate’s Turbine Hall in October, is both appropriate and poignant. Dean studied at Falmouth College of Art, and this is her first work to enter the collection. The purchase is also the result of a tireless campaign by Falmouth’s director, Brian Stewart, who died after a cycling accident last month. A Sequence of Stones was bought with financial assistance from the Museums and Libraries Association and the Art Fund for £39,500, and will go on view at the gallery from 12 February.

More than 20,000 people logged on to the VIP virtual art fair when it opened on Saturday.