Welcome to the WC, where you’re trapped in my mind for eight to twelve minutes weekly.
A veritable cornucopia of useless information this week as we head straight into decorative gourd season.
Let’s get to it.
Table of Contents
🚀 Space Startups
Last week, I vomited out 2,000 words on why venture investing is a bad idea.
This week: hey, look at all these startups you should invest in!
Long-term, spacetech is the most exciting sector going:
For now, there’s really only one way to invest in it: startups and VC.
And Balerion Space Ventures is the best in the biz.
Four of their portfolio companies are raising right now, including:
- A company producing a manufacturing platform that uses AI and robotics.
- The leading space transportation company and a dominant service provider for years to come.
- A company creating transportable fission micro reactors for power off Earth.
- A leading producer of solid rocket motors.
Check out our Deals space in Altea to learn more.
🎨 Auction action part 1
All summer, the Art Press has lamented the decline and fall of the art market. We dug into this a few weeks ago and gave you a few auctions to watch to test the theory.
The gist – if these auctions do well, the segments of the art market in question are probably fine. If not, they’re not.
For the tiny percent of you who didn’t diligently track these auctions, I’ve done the work for you.
So let’s check in.
Hockney prints
Let’s start small. We identified three prints from the Phillips Hockney auction to track the current state of the blue-chip contemporary lithograph market.
Celia beat its estimate by 20%. So far, so good.
Lightning strikes again, beating the estimate by 10%.
A Bigger Fire…well, the pun writes itself. Nicely done.
Nearly everything in the auction smashed its estimate. Well done to Robert Kennan and his team.
PS: If you’re into prints, make sure to check out MyArtBroker’s 2025 Prints survey. It just dropped.
The London Collection
The big one at Sotheby’s, which was hyped up more than any other auction this autumn. I suggested we track René Magritte’s La statue volante as the most significant canary in this coal mine, but I had my little eye on Deux amies by Francis Picabia.
The tentpole piece met its estimate but didn’t exceed it by much — it was also a guaranteed lot. Not a great sign to begin.
PIcabia–my pick for the auction–did much better. Deux amies beat its high estimate by nearly 20%
The other two Picabia pieces in the auction also met their estimates, but it’s clear that the higher end of his works is where the market is currently focused.
Overall, the auction was mixed and about where you’d expect in a neutral market.
But.
Something crazy happened in the interior design space (not a sentence I write often).
Check out this series of results.
A heap of furniture from the Pauline Karpidas collection obliterated estimates. More here here here and here.
The only possible explanation:
Rival Dutchesses use the same interior decorator and were given the same shopping list. They know each other. They HATE each other. Their entire existence is dedicated to destroying each other.
“I SIMPLY WILL NOT LET THAT HORRID WOMAN HAVE THESE TWO UNIQUE CROCODILE STOOLS.”
My best, totally made-up guess for the rivalry is Olivia Henson, Duchess of Westminster, and South African mining heiress Annabel Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe.
Anyway.
The auctions went (a) very well and (b) fine. We’ll check in next week to see how the Phillips Hong Kong Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale goes.
🎾 Auction action part 2
Carlos Alcaraz is legit.
Not only as a tennis player (though also that), but as a cultural phenomenon. He has a Netflix series (his family is adorable) and is nudging out Jannik Sinner in search volume.
This super high intent search (what time does he play) is up 70% YoY.
The match point ball from the Alcaraz-Sinner finals sold for a stunning $88,900 last night, and it’s fair to say that’s down to Alcaraz’s popularity more than Sinner’s.
Because Carlito won, of course, but also check out the prices of Sinner’s quarterfinal ball below—less than $900.
Then Carlos’s QF ball
Naturally, the tournament winner’s memorabilia will be more valuable than that of the runner-up, but this is a significant difference.
Unbelievably, Alcaraz is more popular — in Spain — than Lamine Yamal, who is tipped to be the best footballer in the world for the foreseeable future.
👾 Just one more thing
It looks like the Labulu scourge is behind us.
Because I’m a weird nerd, I got curious about how the Labulu plague spread.
You can see the peak first in America, then in the UK, and then in Spain, as the Labulocusts descended on the markets, then left as quickly as they came.
Thankfully, for all parents out there, these two idiotic meme toys/shows/cynical money grabs are on their way out as well.
Want more analysis just like this? Like making money?
That’s all for this week; I hope you enjoyed it.
Cheers,
Wyatt
Disclosures & Disclaimers The information contained in this newsletter is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice. Altea does not offer or sell securities through this newsletter. Any references to investment opportunities are not offers to buy or sell any security. You should not construe any such references as a recommendation to invest.
All investments carry risk and may result in loss. You are solely responsible for conducting your own due diligence and consulting with your own legal, tax, and investment advisors before making any investment decisions.
Altea does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of information provided by third parties. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Only accredited investors, as defined by applicable laws, may participate in Altea investment opportunities.
