Oct 29th, 2008
Contemporary Art : The Three Giants That Dominate The Market
The United States, the United Kingdom and China dominate the auction market for contemporary art.
This is one trend that emerges from the 2007-2008 annual report by ArtPrice and recently made public. In order, countries where the market has been the most active for artists born after 1945 between July 1, 2007 and June 30 2008:
- USA, 348 M€
- United Kingdom, 262 M€
- China, 259 M€
The distant fourth position is occupied by France, with sales volume of 15 M€.
It was during the Foire Internationale d’art contemporain (FIAC) held in Paris this weekend that the firm has made the evaluation of the market in a 99-page report. The document is free and available online.
The top three artists are Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Cai Guoqiang.
Canada plays a marginal role. With a single event identified in the report (p. 82), it is difficult to compete with Americans. Also, note that only 2.7% of Canadian art galleries participate in the international network, while that number jumps at 18% for the United States (p. 84).
