{"id":47167,"date":"2023-08-16T16:28:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T12:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=47167"},"modified":"2023-08-16T16:28:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T12:28:35","slug":"winners-and-losers-in-the-art-auction-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/winners-and-losers-in-the-art-auction-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners and losers in the art auction market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The inaugural half-year edition of the Artnet Intelligence Report<\/a>, compiled by Artnet News contributor Julia Halperin, attempts to describe the current art market by the numbers. The conclusion: prices are generally dropping and bargains are to be had for the selective buyer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It fact the report doesn\u2019t actually cover the total art market \u2013 it\u2019s just auction house sales, and even then private sales and other numbers that might affect gross hammer prices are excluded. For instance, Artnet notes that sales in the most affordable segment \u2013 works priced at $10,000 and under \u2013 were down 12 percent year on year; but that\u2019s because \u201cmany auction houses no longer consider it cost-effective to transact at this low level\u201d. And this is precisely the price range where galleries (and increasingly direct sales from the artist) are at their best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the caveat that the art market is defined narrowly, it\u2019s still worth looking at the report if only to see where the speculation is happening (anecdotally we assume that auction sales are a better indication of asset acquisition and disposal rather than a measure of \u2013 say \u2013 perceived artistic quality).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It opens with a pretty gloomy summary by Artnet\u2019s editor-in-chief Andrew Goldstein: \u201cAfter staging a blazing comeback from the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, when near-zero interest rates and (let\u2019s be honest) a healthy dose of boredom flooded money into everything from historical masterpieces to animal NFTs, the great global marketplace for fine art lost a whole lot of value \u2013 and dynamism \u2013 in the first half of 2023\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018reality check\u2019 page has some of the key stats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n