‘Trophy’ Sales at Auction Fall 51 Percent—Artnet Report
Sales of artworks over US $10 million plummeted in the first five months of 2023, while total sales at auction slipped a more modest 14 percent.
Gerhard Richter, Badende (1967). Oil on canvas. 160 x 200 cm. Courtesy Christie's. The work sold for US $9.6 million at Christie's auction A Century of Art: The Gerald Fineberg Collection in May 2023, below its estimate of $15–20 million.
Art sales at auction have cooled considerably according to a new report by Artnet.
An analysis of results from 391 auction houses worldwide for the period 1 January to 20 May 2023 found that total sales had declined 14 percent year-on-year to just under U.S. $5 billion.
The drop was especially pronounced for 'trophy' artworks, priced over US $10 million, which fell from $2.4 billion in 2022 to $1.2 billion.
The decline at the top of the market was attributed, in part, to the lack of inventory following a banner year in 2022. Returning to their sales rooms after the worst of the pandemic, Sotheby's presented the $922.2 million Macklowe Collection, while Christie's offered up the Collection of Thomas and Doris Ammann, including Andy Warhol's $195 million Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1982).
The inventory that was on offer in the first half of this year underperformed. Christie's Gerald Fineberg Collection in May 2023 brought in $210 million, well under the estimate of up to $270 million.
It's not just the top of the market that has come back. The heated market for 'ultra-contemporary art', defined as works made by artists born after 1974, cooled by more than 25 percent to $184.2 million.
Assessing the reasons for the pullback in auction prices, senior reporter Katya Kazakina wrote that 'the broader economic volatility finally caught up with the art market, which usually lags other indicators by at least six months.'
'Dealers have been saying for a year that there's been a reset,' art advisor Wendy Cromwell told Kazakina. 'The auctions were just the public acknowledgement of that.'
Artnet presented their findings as an opportunity for buyers, titling their report State of the Market: Welcome to Bargain City?
The report acknowledges that the true health of the art market is hard to ascertain from auction sales, which are confounded by numerous factors.
These include: pre-sale agreements such as guaranteed minimums and irrevocable bids; artwork withdrawals, which exaggerate sell-through rates; and the discrepancy between presale estimates, which don't include buyer's premium fees, and sales figures, which do. —[O]
