Art
Sales on the art market shrinked
Works of art by Picasso, Beckmann or Klimt are still gone for millions at auctions, but less than before. There are more buyers with less money. China meets it particularly hard.
The worldwide art market has shrunk even more clearly last year than in the previous year. The year compared to twelve percent less money, after minus four percent in 2023, as can be seen from the art market report by the Swiss bank UBS and the art fair Art Basel. According to the estimates, sales were $ 57.5 billion (52.4 billion euros). The reason for the decline is economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
A third of the art retailers had expected increasing sales for 2025, reported author Clare Mcandrew. However, their surveys have taken place before the global economic turbulence due to the massive customs announcements by US President Donald Trump and the subsequent stock exchange bricks.
In China, the burglary in 2024 after this analysis was particularly blatant: minus 31 percent. China thus slipped to third place in the most important art marketplaces, behind the undisputed market leader USA with 43 percent of the total business and newly behind Great Britain, where large auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie are based. In Great Britain, 18, 15 percent of the total business in China.
Author Clare Mcandrew reports on a trend towards more purchases in the lower price segment. This includes works of art below $ 50,000. Overall, the number of transactions increased by three percent. Art dealers would have done 44 percent of their business with new customers instead of established collectors.
For the report, McANDREW has been investigating sales of auction houses, art fairs, galleries and art dealers since 2017.
dpa
Source: Stern
