Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

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

Don’t Be Confused, Picasso Market Has Room to Run

April 2, 2018 by Marion Maneker

Two weeks ago, we told AMMpro subscribers about the updraft in the Picasso market. For a number of different reasons, the Spanish master has become the driver of the broader art market. Yes, Picasso is always among the artists with the highest market volume. But that doesn’t mean his work cannot gain relative value.

This week The Art Newspaper follows with their own analysis. Their look combines interviews with commentators on the Gurr Johns buying spree (which is a sideshow to the real story and may be more symptom than cause) and some broader academic analysis by Roman Kraussl. The chart above is Kraussl’s which shows the volume of works (not dollar volume) and a price index (with little indication of the methodology behind the index.)

The Art Newspaper’s work shows that over the last 20 years there has been a broad-but-not-explosive six-fold rise in the average price of an Evening sale Picasso:

since 1998, the average price for an evening-sale Picasso has gone from around $1.2m to around $7.5m.

More important to the present market is the fact that, even with the record sale in 2015 of Femmes d’Algiers (Version ‘O’), the market has been starved for high quality work. What makes 2018 different from other years is not the presence of a market-topping work, even though one is possibly coming next month in the Rockefeller sale, but the number of work selling at higher values than before that already sold in London.

So the news from London isn’t the bulk buying of Gurr Johns’s client but the broad prices paid by a number of buyers, including the Gurr Johns client. There’s also the issue of market share which you can read more about in our London Impressionist and Modern auction analysis.

Read Our Picasso Report Here>>>>

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Cornelius Gurlitt, Under Stress and in Ill Health, Dies at 81Cornelius Gurlitt, Under Stress and in Ill Health, Dies at 81
  • Orientalism!Orientalism!
  • Artelligence for May 11, 2018Artelligence for May 11, 2018
  • London Antiques Dealer Cashes OutLondon Antiques Dealer Cashes Out
  • Final Hirst Spot Count = 1400Final Hirst Spot Count = 1400
  • Paris Oceanic & African Combined = €14mParis Oceanic & African Combined = €14m

Filed Under: Artists

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
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • 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
  • Christie's Announces $70m Picasso Self Portrait
  • David Hockney's $20m Pacific Coast Highway & Santa Monica
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Basquiat's Last Girlfriend
  • Mark Rothko, Tamara de Lempicka, Mickalene Thomas to Star in Phillips London Evening Sale
  • 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