Artnet Offers Some Warhol Market Details

On the occasion of a new show of Warhol’s work at Gagosian,”Warhol from the Sonnabend Collection,” Artnet releases some sales figures for the entire Warhol market which seemed to peak in 2007 with the sale of Green Car Crash for $71 million:

According to Artnet’s Market Performance Report on Andy Warhol, almost $450.1 million worth of works (excluding prints) by the Pope of Pop changed hands at auction in 2007. The total for 2008, however,  is substantially less (even accounting for that $71.7 million lot): $226 million. That’s a drop of 50 percent by value.

A total of 449 Warhol lots were offered in 2007 (again excluding prints), with 388 finding buyers. In 2008, 509 Warhol lots were offered, and 266 sold — a drop in the sell-through rate from 86 percent to 52 percent. For prints, however, the market slow-down is less obvious, with an impressive 980 of 1,105 lots finding buyers in 2007, and 992 of 1,474 lots selling in 2008 — an increase in the number of lots, but a drop in the sell-through from about 88 percent to 67 percent.

Note that the Warhol prints market was able to absorb the same number of works despite the retreat in top end sales.

Art Market Watch (Artnet)