Contemporary Art Market Report

Art Price has just published its annual contemporary art report (2010/2011). 

The report is very thorough and covers much contemporary art sectors and territory, from art market capitals to a list of the top 500 contemporary artists.

It is an 84 page document covering the following topics.

• Trends
• Art and Crisis 
• Art as an alternative investment
• China
• Christie's and Sotheby's
• Art Market Capitals - New York, Beijing, Hong Kong
• Gallery Insight
• Collector Insight
• Arab Contemproary Art Overview
• New Media and the Art Market
• Top 500 Contemporary Artists

Art Price states the following on the annual report:

This fifth edition of the Artprice / FIAC Contemporary Art Market Report is an essential document for all Amateur, Professional and Institutional buyers or collectors of Contemporary art wishing to stay abreast of the key developments in the market. The Report contains market trends from more than 81 countries, analysing the markets for the world’s top-selling individual artists and particularly their resistance to the deflated speculative bubble… How does the Contemporary art market reacted to periods of doubt and uncertainty? … Where is the art market heading? … How well are New Media integrating the Art Market? … What are the strategies of the world’s major art capitals, particularly Hong Kong and Beijing?

One thing is certain: this crisis cannot be compared to that of the early 1990s. Of course, compared to 2006/2008, million-plus auction sales have become scarce; but the contemporary art market is today more dynamic than ever and is showing a rare degree of maturity that many regulated markets would envy.

The report also presents Artprice’s famous and feared TOP 500 that ranks the world’s top-selling Contemporary artists by revenue (i.e. born since 1945) with number of astonishing surprises this year. It also contains a Galleries’ viewpoint section as well as a Collectors viewpoint section.

The reform of public auction sales (and particularly of online sales) since France’s adoption of the European Services Directive (Law of 20 July 2011) should give Parisian auction houses and galleries – who are now operating on a much more even playing field – the opportunity to recover some of the ground that has been lost on the international art market.

In fact, this law, which came into force on 1 September 2011, gives France the same service and product capacities as the UK via a series of new legal provisions that effectively eliminate a monopoly dating back to 1556.

To download the complete 84 page report (PDF), click HERE.