

Greater than 1,000,000 artworks had been put up for public sale for the primary time in 2022 regardless of a dismal international financial system, based on a report launched on Tuesday.
The report by France-based analysts Artprice additionally confirmed a near-total collapse within the earlier 12 months’s craze for NFTs — the blockchain tokens that show possession of digital artworks — whose gross sales fell 94% to $13.9 million.
However extra conventional artwork, significantly work, had a bumper 12 months.
Greater than 1,000,000 artworks had been put up for public sale, and 704,747 bought — each information — with Christie’s seeing six works that surpassed $100 million every.
“One could be forgiven for considering that the world’s issues have had no impression on the artwork public sale market,” the report mentioned. “Certainly, for sure masterpieces of artwork historical past, the 12 months 2022 noticed extra intense competitors than ever earlier than.”
World artwork public sale revenues fell barely on the earlier 12 months — from $17 billion to $16.5 billion.
However this was as a result of slowdown within the Chinese language market, which was nonetheless beneath strict zero-Covid restrictions and noticed its artwork gross sales fall by a 3rd to $3.9 billion.
New York nearly made up the distinction by itself, with gross sales up by $1.5 billion because of gross sales of a number of masterpieces by the likes of Cezanne, Van Gogh and Monet from non-public collections, significantly that of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
One among his work alone — a Marilyn Monroe portrait by Andy Warhol — fetched $195 million, the very best ever for an American murals.
Picasso stays probably the most sought-after artist traditionally; his works generated $494 million final 12 months.
“Twenty years in the past, promoting a murals took a number of months. Right now, they’re bought in just a few days,” mentioned Artprice boss Thierry Ehrmann.
Whereas non-fungible tokens misplaced a lot of their worth — partly as a result of crash in cryptocurrencies — the variety of auctions for these digital artworks truly elevated from 284 to 373.
Consumers have largely gone for cheaper NFTs beneath $5,000 and largely ignored these nonetheless making an attempt to succeed in the astronomical ranges of 2021, the report mentioned.
Total, the artwork market stays dominated by the USA, China and Britain, which collectively make up 81% of world gross sales.
The US regained its high place with a report $7.34 billion, accounting for 44% of the full.
France was in fourth place with $2.16 billion, with the weak efficiency of the euro inflicting a slight contraction.
They had been adopted by Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland and South Korea.
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