Thirsh Auction House Says Demand for Classic Israeli Art Is Rising Again

Amitai Hazan, CEO of Thirsh, says the Israeli art market has moved against earlier expectations and that demand for classic Zionist-era art has surged since COVID-19 and especially during the war. He says collectors are returning to familiar, nostalgic works by established artists such as Reuven Rubin, Nahum Gutman and Yossef Zaritsky, because in difficult periods people seek “safe” places, and art can offer comfort and memory.

Thirsh, founded in 1992 by Hazan’s father, Dov Hazan, and Miki Thirsh, has held hundreds of auctions and long served as the only auction house selling estates and gifts managed by the Israeli state’s official trustee under the Justice Ministry. Its annual marquee sale will take place on June 28, and it will center on three rare private collections, from Joseph and Gerda Brander in Australia, Robin and Peggy Zimmerman, and Natan Kaplan of Chicago. Some of the works were bought in the 1920s and 1930s, a period Hazan calls the golden age of Israeli art.

Hazan says four of the five most expensive works sold at Thirsh in the past two years were sold in the last 18 to 24 months, including Rubin’s “Balfour Street, Tel Aviv” at $354,000, Zaritsky’s “Yehiam” at $354,000, Mordechai Ardon’s “Imaginaire” at $236,000 and Gutman’s “Hassan Bek Mosque” at $177,000. The house’s all-time record remains Rubin’s “Shikh Munis,” sold for $540,000 in 2011. He says early works are especially sought after because they are rare and often far more valuable than later pieces by the same artist.

Beyond the artist’s name, provenance can drive prices sharply higher. Hazan cites cases where association with famous owners or important collections boosted prices, including a Mordechai Levanon painting once given to Golda Meir, which sold for $16,000 instead of the usual $700 to $800. He also recalls Thirsh’s 2014 sale of the IDB art collection during the group’s debt restructuring, when the publicity around Nochi Dankner and IDB helped every work sell well above estimate, with some fetching four to five times expected prices and setting records for artists including Leah Nikel, Rafi Lavie and Zaritsky.

Hazan says Thirsh receives hundreds of sellers each week, but only about 1% of offered works make it into the catalog. The auction house works with museums, curators and researchers to select only the strongest pieces, and he says the sales influence the broader market much like stock prices. He also points to rising prices for living artist Zoya Cherkassky, whose works have increased about fourfold in five years, and says the market is still correcting gender imbalance, even if women now make up about half of top contemporary Israeli artists.