Artnet reviewed its art price database for first quarter trends and determines sales volume was down 7% globally for the first quarter of 2013. The good news was sales were up in the US and UK, and that sell through rates were above 70%. China, one of the main drivers in the art market over the past few years saw a decline of 50% in sales. I know some auction houses have been very bullish on the Chinese market yet I always questioned the sustainability and I do wonder if they have expanded into a bubble.
According to the report, the top selling artist was Picasso, with 1st quarter sales of $87.6 million.
Artnet reports
Source: Artnetartnet reports that during Q1 2013, global art sales volume was down 7% compared to 2012 levels, but showed promising signs of growth. In the United States and the United Kingdom, sales volume was up 6% and 7%, respectively, with sell-through rates remaining above 70% in both countries. The positive trend seen in these two countries is in contrast to the performance of the Chinese Art market, which has seen a 50% decline in value sold in mainland China in Q1 2013, compared to the
previous year.
“Surprisingly, the number of lots sold in China has remained relatively stable, while the overall volume sold in the United States and the United Kingdom has declined 10%,” says Thomas Galbraith, artnet global director of strategy. “This suggests that even with less volume being sold at auction, demand is high enough in both the United States and Europe that the overall value of Fine Art sold at auction has increased in Q1.”
Worldwide, the top 10 artists in the first quarter of 2013, by value sold at auction, include Pablo Picasso (Q1 2013 sales: US$87.6 M), Gerhard Richter (US$44.9 M), Joan Miró (US$44.3 M), Amedeo Modigliani (US$43.1 M), Jean-Michel Basquiat (US$42.3 M), Francis Bacon (US$36.8 M), Claude Monet (US$30.2 M), René Magritte (US$29.2 M), Egon Schiele (US$28.0 M), and PierreAuguste Renoir (US$22.2 M).
Blockbuster sales in Q1 2013, leading with the sale of Modigliani’s Jeanne Hébuterne at Christie’s London on February 6, have already put several top sellers above 2012 values. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and René Magritte have vastly exceeded their Q1 2012 sales totals this year, doubling or tripling the previous year’s performance. Most notably, 645 works by Pablo Picasso sold this quarter for a combined total of US$87.6 million, up from less than 400 lots that sold in Q1 last year for US$26.3 million.
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