Recent Art Market Trends

A 2008 report by ArtPrice.com shows that prices in the art markets of USA, UK, and France dipped in the 1990′s, rose steadily into 2007 where they peaked sharply for 2 years and then dipped back to the pre-2007 prices just as sharply.

The report states that “at the end of 2008, the total value of global Fine Art auction sales amounted to $8.3 billion,” as opposed $4.2 billion between 2000 and 2005. That’s a huge difference!

The largest percent of those sales are from the artwork of artists who were born after 1945. However, individual artists with the largest total sales are as follows:

1. PICASSO, Pablo (1881-1973) $262,366,349 from 1764 lots sold at auction
2. BACON, Francis (1909-1992) $256,208,073 from 100 lots sold at au.
3. WARHOL, Andy (1928-1987) $236,749,034 from 1164 lots sold at au.
4. HIRST, Damien (1965) $230,887,159 from 445 lots sold at au.
5. MONET, Claude (1840-1926) $174,695,716 from 25 lots sold at au.
6. GIACOMETTI, Alberto (1901-1966) $132,631,043 from 111 lots sold at au.
7. RICHTER, Gerhard (1932) $122,211,095 from 166 lots sold at au.
8. DEGAS, Edgar (1834-1917) $111,835,132 from 81 lots sold at au.
9. FONTANA, Lucio (1899-1968) $95,589,589 from 227 lots sold at au.
10. KLEIN, Yves (1928-1962) $91,868,098 from 59 lots sold at au.

Legendary painter Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) comes in first place with 1764 lots sold for a total of $262 million. The prices of his works in every medium have risen 96% over the last decade.

Two living artists- the English Damien Hirst and German Gerhard Richter and are also on that list in 4th and 7th place.
Below is Richter’s Cologne Cathedral glass window he unveiled in 2007. The pixelated design was created with the help of a computer. It contains 11,500 squares in 72 colors. Richter did not charge for the design.

The most expensive art auction sale in 2008 was of Francis Bacon’s painting Triptych (1976), for $77 million, below.

Image from Wikipedia

As bleak as things may seem right now for any market, the good news is that after the worst is over the art market will return full force and stronger than ever. Now that art is becoming more and more accessible to the average person there are more artists and more buyers. Fine art is no longer a luxury reserved for the rich, so don’t hesitate to beautify your life and home with artwork that you enjoy.

The ArtPrice.com report can be found in its entirety at ArtPrice

Related articles

• Pablo Picasso’s Hidden Work (planetoddity.com)
• $35 million Warhol Coke bottle lifts Sotheby’s auction (reuters.com)
• Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings Of All Time (dailycognition.com)

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