
The state of the art market: a brief overview
The state of the art market: a brief overview
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Catherine Asquith
catherine@velvenoir.com[/rs_special_text]
The three main markets, the United States, the United Kingdom and China, remain the strongest accounting for 84% of the global market’s total value. The other salient points in McAndrew’s report are:
- Millennials emerged as active market participants;
- The online market has witnessed continued growth;
- Auction figures rose by 3% “year on year”; and
- Art fairs continue to play a central role in the global art market.
Sotheby’s Mei Moses Index discerns a shift in market trends; up until recently, Impressionist and Modern Art held a prominent position in secondary market growth. However, over the past two years, it is now the Post-War and Contemporary Art market which has seen the strongest growth, up by 12.8% compared with the Impressionist and Modern Art market at 10.8%.
This shift in investment has been evidenced in newsworthy, strong results for artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Pierre Soulages, Zao Wou-ki and Alberto Giacometti.
Whilst the “Basquiat phenomenon” has garnered an unprecedented command of the art market, with record-breaking auction results and survey/retrospective shows at numerous, prestigious museums and galleries, the perhaps less ‘spectacular’ artists, such as Soulages, Zao Wou-ki and Giacometti for example, have been steadily accruing value; suggestive of a more educated sector of the market re-assessing previously over-looked historical masters and preferring the ‘long game’ investment.[/rs_special_text]