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Art Market Analysis: Revenue Surges 255%, Confidence Climbs

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Feb 17th 2010 at 7:01PM

The Christie's and Sotheby's February contemporary art sales surged 255% year-over-year, thanks in large gain relative to the severely depressed baseline created by the financial crisis. Continuing a trend that began last November, with the $39 million sale of Andy Warhol's "200 One Dollar Bills," the art market's showing solid and healthy growth, not a return to the abject stupidity of 2007.

How can you tell the difference? Well, the fact that Alberto Giacometti's "L'homme qui marche I" set a new record at £58 million while Lucian Freud's much-hyped self-portrait with black eye failed to reach the low-end presale estimate, despite the fact that Sotheby's billed it as "the most important self-portrait by the artist ever to he appeared at auction." This represents a profound departure from the prices of $30 million or more that his work used to command.

At Christie's, Yves Klein was responsible for around quarter of the revenue that came in the door, though work by Andy Warhol, Peter Doig, Martin Kippenberger and Richard Prince crossed the £1 billion threshold.

The Art Market Confidence Index by Artprice indicates that art prices will increase over the next quarter.

Tags: andy warhol, AndyWarhol, art auction, art auctions, art market, ArtAuction, ArtAuctions, ArtMarket, Christies, ChristiesAuction, ChristiesAuctionHouse, giacometti, lucian freud, LucianFreud, peter doig, PeterDoig, richard prince, RichardPrince, Sotheby, sothebys

Filed under: Auctions, Art

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