Major Buyers Avoid Ultra-High-End Artworks in Ansan... Market Size Shrinks After 3 Years

The spending habits of major players in the art market have changed. Last year, the global art market size declined for the first time in three years.

According to the art market report published on the 13th (local time) by Art Economics in collaboration with Art Basel and UBS, the global art market size last year was recorded at $65 billion, down 4% from the previous year.

The contraction of the global art market size is the first since 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The major countries trading global artworks were led by the United States at $27.2 billion, followed by China ($12.2 billion) and the United Kingdom ($10.9 billion).

The significant decline in prices of ultra-high-end artworks, which support the scale of the art market, had a major impact. At auctions, prices in the art segment exceeding $10 million dropped by about 40%. Ultra-high-end artworks were a key factor that allowed the art market to grow even in 2022, when major central banks in the US and Europe raised interest rates and the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, but last year, major buyers became more cautious, according to evaluations. Art Economics surveyed over 1,600 galleries worldwide and found that the average annual sales of art private dealers with sales exceeding $10 million decreased by 7%. Meanwhile, sales of art private dealers with annual sales below $5 billion rose by 11%.

The art market industry is paying attention to the fact that despite macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, the market only declined by about 4%. Claire McAndrew, founder of Art Economics, emphasized, “(In this process) we found that the wealthy are not sensitive to disruptive financial environments or social or political changes.”

Market outlooks for this year are mixed. First, the report stated that since major market countries such as the US and the UK have elections as events, the downward trend in art prices is expected to continue. Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel, said, “(Election periods in various countries worldwide) are generally known as complicated years for the art market,” adding, “Especially during highly divisive times, this is particularly true.”

However, UBS forecasted that “the culture of the art market, which has always mixed collecting and enjoyment, could be a potential silver lining (hope) in the vulnerable years ahead.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.