Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Art a Volatile Asset in Australia

July 8, 2010 by Marion Maneker

The Australian has some bad news for art investors in that country, especially since it has now come to light the extent of art’s being used as an investment in private pension schemes:

Griffith University researcher Helen Higgs has compiled a quarterly Australian art price index for the period 1986 to 2009, and compared the performance of the art market with stock and property investments.

During 2008, […] Higgs found that, while the housing market was protected from deviation by government initiatives, “average returns plummeted by 5.85 per cent in the art market and 3.95 per cent in the stock market”. […]  Tracking the sales of more than 60,000 works by 71 Australian artists, the study concludes that art only marginally under-performed the stock and housing markets across the period.

Artists in the study include early Australian painters such as John Glover, through to well-known contemporary artists such as William Robinson. There were 336 sales of works by Glover sold through auction houses in the period covered by Higgs’s report, at an average price of $29,111. Robinson’s 170 sales at auction averaged $62,977.

Higgs’s list tracks all artwork sales, including prints and drawings, with the highest average price paid on 337 sales of works by 19th-century artist Frederick McCubbin ($87,997).

Works by indigenous artist Rover Thomas, who died in 1998, sold for an average price of $64,221.

Investors Get Grim Picture (The Australian)

Cooper review stance on art slammed as ‘madness’ (The Australian)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Australian Painter Brett Whiteley Makes $3.9m RecordAustralian Painter Brett Whiteley Makes $3.9m Record
  • Sotheby’s Australia Comes Up Short with 42% Sell-ThroughSotheby’s Australia Comes Up Short with 42% Sell-Through
  • Australian Collectors Look OutwardAustralian Collectors Look Outward
  • Australian Banker Doubts His Whiteley’s AuthenticityAustralian Banker Doubts His Whiteley’s Authenticity
  • Australia’s Shapiro Gets Herman SaleAustralia’s Shapiro Gets Herman Sale
  • Aboriginal Art: Stop the Madness!Aboriginal Art: Stop the Madness!

Filed Under: Economic Trends Tagged With: Australian

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Restituted Van Gogh Portrait from London Collection to Sell at Christie’s
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Basquiat's Last Girlfriend
  • Podcast
  • Christie’s to Sell Its First Fully Digital Work of Art in Test of Emerging Market
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor