The year who has just finished was characterized by the unfortunate prices of everything.
That includes floors, olive oil, lamb meat and, logically, art.
In fact, in 2021 the value of the works of art sold by the three large auction houses in the world – Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips – has been upper than 21% to 2019, until 5,500 million dollars (5,754 million
euros).
The figures, which come from the analysis of the British Actactic company, confirm the good moment of investment in art, and the resurrection of that market after the Covid-19 paralyzed sales for most of 2020. In fact, if
The data of 2020 with those of 2021 are compared, a spectacular increase of 74% is verified.
Solo Sotheby’s had sales of 7.3 billion dollars last year, the highest in its history, although in that amount not only auctions are included, but also private sales.
Arctactic statistics also give a fairly accurate idea of rising values in the art world.
The most obvious case is the ‘contemporary young art’, which is like the analysts of that company call the artists of less than 45 years, whose sales they doubled in relation to 2020. It is a segment that, apart from the traditional ‘art
‘, it is entering the new – and controversial – form of digital expression known as the NFTs.
That is the case of Mike Winkelmann (known as Beeple) and its NFT ‘Everyday: The First 5,000 Days’, sold in Christie’s for 69 million dollars in March.
Other creators of this age group are Adrian Ghenie, Matthew Wong, “which died in 2019 at age 35 -, and Nicolas Party.
Another relevant detail is the importance of Hong Kong as a center for sale of the creations of these artists.
According to Arttactic’s analysis, almost three quarters of the works of ‘contemporary young art’ took place in that city.
The fact that Hong Kong has three years in a political crisis, after China decided to end the city’s autonomy and sweeping the political freedoms of its inhabitants does not seem to have had, thus, the slightest impact on the
Auctions in that territory.
The conclusion is that the art market, in case there was any doubt, does not care about democracy.
Nor to the millionaires of the technological industry and the cryptodivisas.
This is how Artactic’s study is manifested by affirming that “the art world is experiencing a generational change towards young collectors ·”, who have carved their fortunes into those sectors.
However, the most important sales in 2021 were those of the Impressionists, who reached nothing less than 963 million dollars, that is, 14.8% of the total.
The auctions of these authors have multiplied almost by 3.5 in relation to 2020.
With these numbers, there is the curestion of whether the art market is living a ‘bubble’, pushed, precisely, by the new Asian millionaires.
In fact, the proliferation of the NFT – which, for some, are not art – it has been such that even to Melania Trump ends up selling digital reproductions of images of his eyes (‘The Vision of Melania’) for $ 187 (
166 euros).
