Art Market Monitor

The Economist has a full package of stories on the state of the art market just in time for ArtBasel Miami Beach. We’ll have more posts about some of the various stories this week. In the meantime, here are some interesting data points from the opening essay of the report (all bullet points are quotes):

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• During the boom the number of wealthy people in Russia, India, China and the Middle East rose rapidly. In 2003 Sotheby’s biggest buyers—those who purchased lots costing at least $500,000—came from 36 countries. By 2007 they were spread over 58 countries and their total number had tripled.
• Part of the extra demand has come from a large increase in the number of museums. Over the past 25 years more than 100 have been built, not only in America and Europe but also in the sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf and the fast-growing cities in Asia; sometimes in partnership with Western institutions, such as the Guggenheim or the Louvre, sometimes on their own. Many of these institutions have made their mark by buying contemporary art.
• Philippe Ségalot [...] was behind one of the biggest deals involving a single work of art, the private sale of Warhol’s 1963 painting, “Eight Elvises”, to an anonymous buyer for over $100m.
• At its peak in 2007 it was worth some $65 billion, reckons Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics, a research firm—double the figure five years earlier. Since then it may have come down to $50 billion.

Suspended Animation (Economist)

Also of Interest:

• Thornton on the Warhol Market
  Sarah Thornton on NPR Sarah Thornton discusses her Economist article on the market for Andy Warhol works on National Public...
  
• The Koons Market is the Art Market
  Sarah Thornton’s Economist.com analysis of the Contemporary art market focuses on the dynamic of the Jeff Koons market. After all,...
  
• How Big Is the Art Market?
  Paddy at ArtFagCity.com asked a fairly straight-forward question on her site the other day: “Does anyone know how much money...
  
• Shrunken Market
  Georgina Adam maps out the Contemporary Art market’s new price structure in the Financial Times anticipating many of the questions...
  
• £40 Billion Strong . . . and Growing?
  You know the Maastricht Art Fair is just around the corner when TEFAF releases it’s report on the art market...