Art Market Growth

The NY Times is reporting on the latest European Fine Art Foundation report which shows world art and antiques sales grew by 8% last year to $65.9 billion.  The US market grew by 25% with an estimated $25 billion in sales accounting for 38% of total auction and dealer sales.  China was second to the us, claiming 24% of the art sales.

Much of the estimated annual growth is attributed to the contemporary sector and the high end of the market place.

The sale of art and antiques around the world rose 8 percent last year to $65.9 billion, the highest level since 2007, continuing a recovery in the art market, according to the latest annual report for the European Fine Art Foundation.

Sales in the United States, the largest art market, rose 25 percent to an estimated $25 billion and accounted for 38 percent of the sales made both at auction and in private. Sales in China, the second largest market, expanded by 2 percent to about $15.9 billion, following a contraction in 2012.

Growth overall was driven by buoyant post-war and contemporary art sales, and the report noted the trend for high-priced works in this sector.

The world art market fell sharply after the financial crisis, recovered sharply in 2010 and has continued to grow more modestly since then, the report shows.

“After recovering strongly in 2010, the global art market has experienced mixed performance within different sectors and between nations,” said Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics, who prepared the report for the opening of the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht in the Netherlands on Friday.

“The much more moderate growth in sales over the last three years reflects the fact that different areas of the market have been recovering at different rates.”

China accounts for about 24 percent of art sales in the world, according to the report, which highlighted the continuing problem of non-payments by buyers in China. This had led to some exaggeration in the reported expansion of Chinese sales, but the report said this problem is not unique to the Chinese market.

Source: The NY Times