Everyone finds in the reports what they are looking for. Last Sunday we talked about the relevant report recently published by Sotheby's and ArtTactic analyzing the market for works sold at auction for over a million dollars in the last 5 years. I highlighted that this segment means, in value, 74% of the total, although it only accounts for 4% of the transactions. Consequently, I affirmed that this presented us with two different markets with very different behaviors.
The curious thing about the case is that recently, while I was visiting Sotheby's headquarters in London, while I was waiting to have a coffee with one of their specialists, the magazine they publish quarterly fell into my hands. Between wonderful villas and stories from wealthy collectors, one of his articles spoke precisely of the aforementioned report. At no time did he underline this duplicity of markets, but rather limited himself to highlighting five major trends through which they believe that postwar and contemporary sales will flow. I find it interesting to comment on them here.
The first is that this 1 million segment, beyond macroeconomic and geopolitical tensions, is growing; 26% according to the figures of the three big auction houses before and after the pandemic.
The second is that the works of women artists are selling better. They do not even come close to men's prices, but something is changing when some names are making a name for themselves and already account for almost a quarter of the transactions.
The third is that young artists are on the rise. If in 2018 there were only 62 under 45s in this select club, in 2022 there were already 160. And here, we cannot forget the young creators of NFT works who in a few months saw their prices rise to astronomical prices .
The fourth highlights that American artists continue to dominate. A reality that may decrease as the Asian and African markets cement their artists, but in 2022 55% were of American nationality.
And the fifth, affirms that collectors continue to prefer painting, since in value it represents 88% of the adjudications. It is true that these trends refer to the auction industry, but I think they are indicative of where the global art market may be in the coming years.
