In commercial terms, the trade in Contemporary artworks is today a veritable market within a market. Our 21st Contemporary Art Market Report focuses on the over 70,000 Contemporary works now bought and sold annually at auctions around the world. This is almost the same number as for the entire Art Market in the early 1990s.
In order to optimise their objectivity and coherency, our annual reports are based on exactly the same standardization methods and frames of reference every year and therefore represent an absolutely unique analysis of the Art Market over the long term. Moreover, our work substantially contributes to enhancing the market’s transparency and fluidity by actively contributing to the traceability of works and the gradual and continuous construction of artists’ prices based on their auction histories, supply and demand, and all the other available information and news.
Thierry Ehrmann – Founder and CEO of Artprice.com, by ArtMarket.com
Key figures
The figures for the 12-month period reveal a mature and dynamic market giving increasing support to living artists while generating its own “classics” with prices at the art market’s highest levels.
Global turnover ($1.89 billion) has doubled in 10 years
The United States and Asia account for 66% of the global market
Record number of Contemporary artworks sold (71,400)
21 ,996 Contemporary artists sold vs. 10,243 ten years ago
Nearly 20,000 new artists records
A stunning new record for a living artist: Jeff Koons reaches $91 million
Sotheby’s leads global sales of Contemporary art with turnover of ($623 million)
Only four female artists in the segment’s top 100 auction results
Half of the works sold for less than $1,000 Only 3% of the works sold fetched over $100,000
284 new 7-digit results
The segment’s global average unsold rate remained stable at 39%
The price index of Contemporary Art progressed 22%
Driven by a new phase of growth in 2018/19, the Contemporary Art market generated $1.89 billion, its third best performance in auction history after totals of more than $2 billion in 2013/14 and 2014/15. One of the most remarkable developments this past year was the record number of lots sold: 71,400, an average of 195 works per day. This total has risen by 131% in the past ten years and by 480% since 2000.
And… as market demand for Contemporary Art has expanded – both numerically and geographically – so its share of the total art market has risen… with its price index posting a 22% increase over the 12-month period in question.
Market share of contemporary art vs other periods of creation
By artprice.com
To see fully contemporary art market report by artprice: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FWQTZC4VoQXDVthH3MRqe47r_b5zhIUa/view?usp=sharing
