PR89096

PARIS, April 20, 2021, /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

With $1.6 billion hammered around the world in fine art auctions during the 1st

quarter of 2021, the art market may look like it has already returned to a

"normal" rhythm. True, the Q1 total is exactly the average Q1 total over the

ten Q1 periods preceding the health crisis (2010 - 2019). But this impression,

based on auction turnover alone, hides a very different situation from that

which prevailed two years ago.

Q1 fine art auction turnover since 2000

Fine art lots sold and unsold in Q1 auctions since 2000

thierry Ehrmann, President and Founder of Artmarket.com and its Artprice

department, acknowledges that "it is still a little early to disentangle the

effects of each of the powerful factors currently shaking the art market:

Covid, Brexit, NFTs, etc. But their consequences are already visible".

Artprice is therefore redoubling its efforts to ensure continuous monitoring of

the market's most sensitive indicators and keep a close eye on its overall

health. Artprice wishes to share the conclusions of its econometrics department

in order to contribute to the market's transparency.

1. A record number of transactions

Despite the logistical complications linked to the health crisis, fine art

auction transactions have never been as numerous as in Q1 2021. In total,

112,200 lots were sold around the world, i.e. 6% more than in Q1 2019 (105,600

lots sold). The digital transition undertaken by the major auction houses has

enabled the emergence of an online market that is particularly suited to the

middle market.

2. A declining unsold rate

An key indicator of the balance between supply and demand in the market, the

unsold rate varied only very slightly over the period 2010-2019, fluctuating

between 31% and 34%. In other words, the art market has become accustomed to

seeing a third of the lots offered for auction fail to reach their reserve

prices. But in Q1 2021, only one in four sales (25%) failed: demand is

therefore increasing a little faster than supply!

3. A gradual geographic rebalancing

Q1 turnover figures are usually dominated by London, which hosts the first

prestige sales of the year. In 2021 the agenda had to be postponed by several

weeks but nevertheless went ahead. However, the dominance of the UK capital

appears weakened: London accounted for 37% of global sales revenue in Q1 2021

versus 48% in Q1 2019. New York, which managed to generate 27% of the global

turnover in the first three months of the year, appears to be the main

beneficiary.

4. The NFT revolution

The sale of Beeple's NFT Everydays marked the start of a possible revolution on

the art market. The work was purchased for $69 million in a Christie's online

auction using the Ether cryptocurrency. Indeed, this new market appears to have

become even more 'intangible' since Sotheby's generated $16.8 million by

selling "The Fungible Collection", a digital work offered online in unlimited

quantities and created by the anonymous and mysterious Pak.

5. Red-chips dethrone blue-chips

Since the end of 2020, art auctions around the world have hammered some

surprising results for extremely recent works. Journalist Scott Reyburn (in The

Art Newspaper) cites, as an example, Christie's "20th Century: Hong Kong to New

York" sale on 2 December 2020 and says he was surprised to see Dana Schutz's

canvas Elevator (2017) fetch $6.5 million and Andy Warhol's "classic"

Campbell's Soup Can (1962) sell for just $6.1 million (especially as the latter

reached $7.4 million in 2014). Reyburn concludes that the arrival of new

collectors, in search of the latest novelties ("red-chips") is overtaking the

desire to possess "blue-chip" artworks.

www.theartnewspaper.com/analysis/the-rush-for-red-chip-art

Images:

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e-Art-Turnover-Q1-since-2000.png]

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e-Art-Lots-Q1-since-2000.png]

Copyright 1987-2021 thierry Ehrmann www.artprice.com - www.artmarket.com

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containing over 30 million indices and auction results, covering more than

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reproductions of artworks from 1700 to the present day, commented by our art

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represents the leading Global Standardized Marketplace(R) to buy and sell

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