China regains top spot for art sales
Print Edition
GLOBAL art sales plunged in 2016 as the number of high-value works sold dropped by half, while China regained its status as the world’s top market, Artprice said in an annual report released yesterday.
Art auctions worldwide totaled US$12.5 billion last year, down 22 percent from US$16.1 billion in 2015, it said.
The world’s biggest database for art prices and sales, working with Chinese partner Artron, attributed the drop to a plunge in the number of works worth above US$10 million each — from 160 in 2015 to 80 last year.
“On all continents sellers are choosing a policy of wait-and-see,” Artprice CEO Thierry Ehrmann said.
Top-dollar auctions last year included that of an Impressionist painting of a haystack by Claude Monet, “Meule,” which went for US$81.4 million and a Peter Paul Rubens masterpiece, “Lot and his Daughters,” sold for US$58.1 million, both at Christie’s.
Contemporary art had its standout moments, too, with an untitled painting from American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat that went to a Japanese collector for US$57.3 million, and Wassily Kandinsky’s “Rigid and Curved” from 1935, which went under the hammer for US$23.3 million.
But it was China which chalked up the highest total sales and “established itself clearly as the superpower” of the art world, the report said.
After five years of dominance, the country lost its title as top art market to the United States in 2015, but a year later was back, recording US$4.8 billion in auction sales.
That figure represented 38 percent of total world sales, said Artprice.
Traditional calligraphy and painting comprised the vast majority of sales in China.
The country’s biggest sale in 2016 was a scroll painting of “Five Drunken Kings Return on Horses” by early 14th century Chinese artist Ren Renfa that went for US$45.89 million.
New York City remained the undisputed capital for art auctions, with US$3.2 billion in sales, over Beijing’s US$2.3 billion and London’s US$2.1 billion.
Chinese artists were also the main moneymakers in the auction world, taking three of the five top spots for 2016 sales.
Works by China’s Zhang Daqian fetched the highest amounts, followed by 20th century master Pablo Picasso, then Chinese watercolorist Qi Baishi and “father” of Chinese contemporary art Wu Guanzhong, and, finally, the German contemporary artist Gerhard Richter.
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