Arttactic, the London art market consultancy, has released a report on New York’s Contemporary art sales last week where they say the Contemporary market is now only 5% below its peak in May 2008:

The overall auction total for the three Post-war and Contemporary Evening sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips de Pury came to an impressive $633,795,000 against a pre-sale estimate of $528,550,000 – $740,070,000. This was the second highest Post-war and Contemporary Evening sales total ever, and came in 37% higher than May 2011 and 14% more than November 2011.

The average auction price for the three sales was $4,559,676, which is the highest average price achieved for a New York Contemporary Evening sale, and was 24% higher than the peak of the market in May 2008.

Contemporary art market only 5% below previous peak in May 2008 (Arttactic)