World gross sales of artwork and antiques have fallen for a second consecutive yr, declining by 12% in 2024 to an estimated $57.5bn, finds the newest Artwork Market Report by Artwork Basel/UBS. “It has been a really difficult yr total,” says Clare McAndrew, the founding father of the analysis agency Arts Economics, who authored the report.
That is the third-largest contraction of the worldwide artwork market up to now 15 years, in response to the report, eclipsed solely by the years of the 2009 recession (-36%), and the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic (-22%), and on par with the 12% drop recorded in 2012.
Gross sales fell in virtually each area, with China most affected, seeing a decline of 33%. Gross sales within the US, the world’s largest artwork market, decreased by 9%, and slid by 10% in each France and Italy, and 15% in South Korea. “Regardless of Brexit-related challenges” the UK contracted by a extra average 5%, and has retained its place because the second-largest artwork market.
Because the report lays out, the dynamics of final yr’s contraction broadly mirror these of 2023, when complete gross sales fell by 4% with the best value factors most affected, on account of “ongoing geopolitical tensions, financial pressures and shifting shopping for behaviour”.
The once-booming up to date sector was hit arduous, with gross sales at public sale dropping by 36% to $1.4bn, their lowest degree since 2018. Amid a return to extra tried-and-tested names, McAndrew notes a rising aversion to danger amongst patrons.
“A number of sellers spoke of a scarcity of curiosity amongst shoppers,” she tells The Artwork Newspaper. “They are saying they used to struggle with collectors for works at artists studios. Now everybody needs to purchase somebody they’ve already heard of. The urge for food for the unknown isn‘t there anymore.” The report notes that galleries are extra closely counting on their prime three best-selling artists on account of “extra selective shopping for by collectors”.
Nonetheless, whereas sale worth is down, buying and selling quantity grew by 3%, reflecting higher exercise at lower-priced phase of works priced beneath $50,000.
A shift in stability?
Public sale homes final yr offered 20% much less by worth however 4% much less by quantity. The same pattern was seen within the gallery sector, and hinted to the emergence of a extra balanced and democratic ecosystem: dealerships with the smallest turnovers, beneath $250,000, noticed the best enhance in gross sales, with a 17% increase, whereas these with a turnover exceeding $10m skilled a 9% decline.
Nonetheless, these small positive factors are undermined by plummeting profitability throughout a lot of the artwork and antiques market, as costs for just about all features of the enterprise, from delivery to lease, have elevated.
Different positives to remove from the report, McAndrew says, are the elevated gross sales of labor by girls artists within the major market, up 3% year-on-year.
Whereas the artwork market skilled common fluctuations, the report additionally exhibits that for the previous decade, it has struggled to succeed in its 2014 peak, regardless of a big enhance in wealth among the many amassing class, particularly billionaires.
Reflecting on the way forward for the artwork market, one vendor is quoted within the report as saying: “Current younger collectors are now not shopping for work. With the bursting of the up to date artwork bubble, there’s a excessive reliance on older collectors preferring Fashionable and Put up-Warfare artwork… (however) many of those collectors are of their 60s and 70s, so I’m frightened about what the artwork scene will appear like 10 years from now.
“Alternatively, we all know there’s a excessive proportion of rich individuals who don’t have any expertise in buying artwork, and the problem for sellers is the way to attain them, fairly than specializing in current artwork collectors.”
