- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- McLaren's Norris sets Singapore pace as struggling Verstappen 15th
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- 8 dead in Israeli strike, source says Hezbollah commander killed
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
- Stock markets fall after Fed-fuelled rally
- Top Hezbollah commander 'killed' in Israel strike
- Poland charges Russian over attack on Navalny ally: prosecutors
- Man City have rest 'advantage' in Arsenal showdown: Guardiola
- Maresca has 'no doubt' in Jackson as Chelsea's number nine
- EU chief announces 35 bn euro loan plan for Ukraine before winter
- From TikTok to Hollywood, the irresistible rise of Italy's Khaby Lame
- Verstappen punished for swearing in Singapore press conference
- Sri Lanka lead by 202 in first New Zealand Test
- Brook 'not too fussed' by England's batting in heavy Australia loss
- India's Ashwin 'happy' to embrace pressure
- A modern 'Trojan Horse': two days of mayhem in Lebanon
- Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN
- Man Utd appoint Foster + Partners to develop Old Trafford 'masterplan'
- Israel-Hezbollah exchanges intensify on Lebanon border
- French mayor sorry for 'no one died' remark over mass rape trial
- Mohamed Al-Fayed, outsider shunned by British high society
CMSC | 0.04% | 25.13 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.16% | 25.05 | $ | |
GSK | -1.86% | 40.86 | $ | |
SCS | -3.26% | 12.89 | $ | |
RIO | -2.37% | 63.67 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
NGG | 1.15% | 69.63 | $ | |
BTI | -0.39% | 37.425 | $ | |
AZN | -0.72% | 78.335 | $ | |
BCC | -1.93% | 141.95 | $ | |
BP | -0.14% | 32.715 | $ | |
RYCEF | 0% | 6.95 | $ | |
JRI | -0.53% | 13.329 | $ | |
BCE | -0.89% | 34.88 | $ | |
RELX | -0.32% | 47.975 | $ | |
VOD | -0.65% | 9.995 | $ |
Art sales hit all-time high in 2021
Art auctions saw a record year in 2021 with $17.1 billion (15.6 billion euros) in sales as the market continued its rapid growth in Asia and recovered from its coronavirus slump, experts Artprice said Monday.
The figure marked a 60-percent increase on 2020, when sales were hit by the initial disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, and 28-percent compared with 2019, according to the firm's annual report.
"The global art market regained much of its customary dynamism, and a whole lot more as well," the report said.
It was boosted by a number of big-name auctions such as the $45-million Botticelli and $34.9-million Frida Kahlo sales in New York.
There was also the landmark moment when digital artist Beeple sold a NFT for $69 million, the third-highest figure ever paid for a living artist.
Most NFTs are sold on crypto-exchanges (Ethereum alone sold some $40 billion of them last year) that do not qualify for Artprice's monitoring of "regulated auctions".
But it still counted some 300 traditional auctions of NFTs, worth $232 million in all, putting the medium ahead of photography.
"The health crisis accelerated the art market's digitisation -- 87 percent of the 6,300 auction houses that we follow now have a back-office dealing with online sales," Artprice president Thierry Ehrmann told AFP.
Contemporary art -- counted as anything created after 1945 -- accounts for a growing share of sales, with 20 percent of the market, up from 3 percent in 2000.
China, with $5.95 billion or 35 percent of all sales, now counts the world's largest art market.
The United States, on 34 percent, was pushed into second place, though its market is still more diversified, selling more artworks at a lower average price compared with China.
South Korea has seen rapid growth -- entering the top 10 with $237 million in sales, up from $58 million before the pandemic.
The effects of Brexit and competition from Hong Kong were felt on Britain's art market, which saw sales drop 10 percent on 2019 to $1.99 billion.
"Hong Kong is increasingly asserting itself on the global chessboard and competing directly with the English capital," Artprice said.
An increasingly active market also means fewer items are being left unsold. A record-low 31 percent of items did not find a buyer in 2021, compared with traditional levels between 34 and 39 percent.
Gerhard Richter and Banksy remain the best-selling living artists -- some 1,186 Banksy artworks were sold in 2021 for a total of $206 million.
M.Odermatt--BTB