{"id":52808,"date":"2024-03-19T20:20:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T16:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=52808"},"modified":"2024-03-19T20:20:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T16:20:48","slug":"artnet-counts-just-under-14-billion-art-auction-sales-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/artnet-counts-just-under-14-billion-art-auction-sales-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Artnet counts just under $14 billion art auction sales in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Artnet\u2019s Intelligence Report<\/em> \u2013 aka The Year Ahead 2024<\/a><\/em> \u2013 makes for an interesting counterpoint to the Art Basel \/ UBS Art Market Report <\/a><\/em>we surveyed last week. It doesn\u2019t attempt to do the same thing, notably because Artnet concentrates on auction houses; the Art Market Report<\/em> aims for a comprehensive survey that also includes galleries and other channels like the NFT marketplaces. But even if you aren\u2019t an auction house customer, Artnet has still produced an engaging read.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There are interviews in the \u2018five questions \u2026\u2019 format for three movers ‘n’ shakers, from Paris, LA and Hong Kong. The extended section on \u2018Understanding Regional Differences in the Globalized Art Market\u2018 produced with Morgan Stanley is exhaustive, even if it does feel a little like a heap of data looking for some meaning. And the best essay is another multipager, ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’, where Artnet News senior reporter Katya Kazakina explores legal developments and the increasing theatricality of the auction market (\u201csome of the moves, like the new language on reserves, are hard to spot. Others, like Sotheby\u2019s new fee structure, are broadcast with a megaphone\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data-wise, there are good lists of auction bestsellers in several categories. Headline points: Basquiat fever continues apace, the ultra-contemporary category (artists born after 1970) is being boosted by resurgent interest from Hong Kong. Photography remains flat \u2013 two Cindy Sherman film stills on the top 10 list, for example, sold for $971,691 and $693,000, while other examples of her work have sold for as much as $3 million. And the big bucks were to be found among Old Masters and the Impressionist\/Modernist category, albeit for works that have rarely been to the salerooms \u2013 absence makes the wallet grow fatter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So to the top-line results from the 462 auction houses worldwide that Artnet polled during 2023: fine art sales at auction totalled just under $14 billion in 2023, down 12.7 percent year over year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s markedly different to the Art Market Report <\/em>figure, which had total auction sales (public and private) at $28.9 billion, down 5% year on year. Artnet does count fine art separately from \u2018collectables\u2019 like watches, but even adding $4.4bn there doesn\u2019t get its total auction-house business to $20bn. We couldn\u2019t really see why there was such a contrast \u2013 where did Clare McAndrew find those extra sales? \u2013 so we\u2019re assuming it\u2019s a matter of definitions (it\u2019s not clear for instance how buy-ins are counted).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both reports agree the volume of transactions rose during the year, which Artnet noted combined with a decline in high-priced work to drive down the average price of art sold at auction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artnet says the dip in sale value reflects \u201ca perfect storm of factors\u201d \u2013 interest-rate hikes, geopolitical uncertainty, and a wobbly stock market. The Art Market Report concurred with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artnet reports a total of $440.3 million worth of online sales at auction houses for fine art \u2013 that’s at Sotheby\u2019s, Christie\u2019s, Phillips, Bonhams, and its own Artnet Auctions. (The Art Market of course takes a much broader view of online sales, recording $11.8 billion in 2023 \u2013 up 7% from the year before, though below the post-pandemic peak of $13.3 billion in 2021.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Artnet Intelligence Report<\/em> is available as a free download here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sotheby\u2019s marquee evening sales have become streaming productions worthy of a major broadcasting company<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Artnet\u2019s Intelligence Report \u2013 aka The Year Ahead 2024 \u2013 makes for an interesting counterpoint to the Art Basel \/ UBS Art Market Report we surveyed last week. It doesn\u2019t attempt to do the same thing, notably because Artnet concentrates [… more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}