Arthena Analysis: Art Basel’s 2017 Global Art Market Report
Art Basel and UBS released The Art Market 2017 last week at Art Basel in Hong Kong. The report was prepared by longtime arts economist and founder of Arts Economics, Clare McAndrew. Her research, previously for the TEFAF Report, has been a guidepost for the art market.
McAndrew remarked in a statement: “2016 was a challenging year for the art market with uneven performance across regions and sectors. An uplift in gallery sales prevented a deeper decline in sales overall, with dealers gaining share of the global art trade. However, even within this sector, performance differed between segments, with the best results reported for dealers operating at the high end of the market.”
Arthena’s top 10 findings about the global art business in 2016:
1. The art market achieved total sales of roughly $56.6 billion in 2016, an 11 percent drop from 2015.
2. The top three markets — the US, the United Kingdom, and China — confirmed their dominant position in the global market in 2016, accounting for just over 80 percent of sales.
3. The gallery remained the most important channel for dealer sales in 2016, accounting for 51% of sales on average. Art fairs accounted for 41%, while online sales were 8% of the total.
4. The U.S. market (at $22.9 billion in 2016) is now 8% lower than it was ten years previously.
5. Due to the decline in US auction sales and relatively stable performance in China, the Chinese market led the auction sector with 34 percent of sales by value.
6. In terms of exhibitions, the US again led globally in this sector in 2016, with a 20% share in the number of exhibitions that took place worldwide. This share has fallen from a high of 32% in 2012 and was 29% ten years previously in 2006.
7. Art fairs continued to be a critical part of dealers’ businesses, representing 41% of their total sales in 2016. In 2016, 43% of the dealers surveyed made half or more of their annual sales at art fairs, while 14% made over three-quarters of their turnover through these events.
8. In 2016, according to the survey, dealers reported that on average their sales were made to 75 buyers. This average is down 14% on results in 2015, but the median was stable at 40. More interesting, for dealers grossing up to$1 million, new buyers accounted for a higher than average 42% of sales. However, this dropped to 21% for dealers with turnover in excess of $10 million and again to 18% for those with a turnover greater than $50 million.
9. Most primary market dealers (83%) were optimistic that sales going forward in 2017 would be stable or higher than in 2016.
10. Sales at public auction of decorative art and antiques came under pressure in 2016, with aggregate values falling by 26% to $22.1 billion.
