The Washington Post ran an article on the first page of the Sunday Arts section about the rising prices at the top end of the market. It touches on fine art, and also mentions the recent growth and record breaking prices for art photography as well. The article touches on many of the basic ideas we have seen recently in the trade press with art as an asset class, the top end of the market is strong, middle market is slow, quality sells and the overall rising demand for quality art due to the global economy and wealth and collectors spreading beyond the US and Europe .
The Washington Post report
Source: The Washington PostThe trend is a narrow one, confined to the stratosphere at the major auction houses and their well-heeled, privacy-loving and therefore largely anonymous clientele.
The boom is less evident, for example, at galleries and art fairs, which have only recently begun to recover from recession-era sales slumps. “The best of the best goes for big, big prices, but when you drop down to the secondary and tertiary levels of the market, it’s not the same thing,” says Douglas Druick, president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago. “It’s not like that moment in the late ’80s where everything — the best and the less-than-best — was rising. Now the market is much more savvy.”
But narrow or no, the great Art Rush of the early 21st century is a phenomenon. What’s happening here? Has art become the new gold, a refuge for super-rich investors fleeing volatile stock markets and wobbly currencies around the world? Some close observers of the art-auction circus think so.
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