Global Art Market Rebounds to Pre-Pandemic Level – RisePEI

After a major drop-off in 2020, the worldwide artwork market returned to pre-pandemic ranges in 2021, producing $65.1 million, based on an annual survey printed at the moment by Artwork Basel and UBS. That determine is about $15 billion greater than the one reported final 12 months by McAndrew for 2020, and simply above the $64 billion she reported in 2019.
Economist Clare McAndrew, who authored the report, surveyed a number of hundred worldwide galleries and greater than 2,000 high-net-worth artwork collectors based mostly within the U.S., the U.Ok., Asia, and Europe.
The U.S. stays the biggest nationwide market within the artwork commerce, occupying 43 p.c of the full worth share. In second and third place are China and the U.Ok., which account for 20 and 17 p.c, respectively.
The U.S. noticed gross sales enhance by 33 p.c, to round $28 billion, in 2021. Gross sales in better China elevated by 35 p.c, reaching $13.4 billion.
“Sellers and public sale homes efficiently adjusted to a brand new two-tier system of on-line and offline gross sales and occasions, and the rising wealth of the [high net worth] collectors helped to assist demand on the greater finish of the market,” McAndrew mentioned in an announcement accompanying the report.
Maybe probably the most outstanding art-market development of the previous 12 months was the NFT increase. Based mostly on McAndrew’s report, it seems that many collectors invested in that development.
Practically three-quarters of the collectors surveyed had bought art-related NFTs in 2021, and NFT gross sales through on-line platforms accounted for $2.6 billion. Greater than half of the collectors surveyed reported an curiosity in buying digital artworks within the subsequent 12 months, with millennials accounting for almost all.
Gallery gross sales reached $34.7 billion in 2021. That marks a rise in 18 p.c from 2020. Greater than half of the sellers surveyed mentioned their gross sales elevated in 2021, whereas 26 p.c reported a drop in gross sales in comparison with the identical interval in 2020. 13 p.c of sellers noticed gross sales stay on the similar stage between 2020 and 2021.
In-person occasions returned in full drive final 12 months, however it seems that artwork gala’s are nonetheless not serving to sellers fairly as a lot as they used to earlier than the pandemic. Gross sales made by sellers at artwork gala’s accounted for 29 p.c of their annual totals in 2021, based on McAndrew’s report. That quantity continues to be a far cry from the 43 p.c reported in 2019.
In the meantime, public public sale gross sales reached $26.3 billion in 2021, a rise of 47 p.c from the 2020 whole. Non-public gross sales at public sale homes generated $4.1 billion, up 32 p.c from the $3.1 billion reported in 2020. The U.S. and China have been the biggest markets for public public sale gross sales, with 32 p.c and 33 p.c shares, respectively.
McAndrew’s report mentioned that on-line gross sales continued to develop in 2021. On-line gross sales channels accounted for 20 p.c of all supplier gross sales, reaching $13.3 billion (together with gross sales made through artwork truthful–hosted on-line viewing rooms). The determine is greater than double the figures reported by McAndrew for 2019.
The continuing world disaster has not deterred the ultra-wealthy from investing in artwork. The median expenditure by the collectors surveyed within the report almost doubled between 2020 and 2021, reaching $274,000 final 12 months. That rise is being pushed partially by baby-boomer collectors, who, regardless of shopping for fewer works than their youthful counterparts, had the best common expenditure general, at $346,000.