The auction market weakened in 2016, as sales of art and antiques via dealers grew, according to the latest art market report.
The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report by Clare McAndrew, released in Hong Kong today, found sales in the dealer sector globally grew 3% year-on-year to $32.5bn. Dealer sales now account for 57% of the market with auction sales at 43%.
The month of March has become high season for art market reports with TEFAF and Art Market Monitor of Artron (AMMA) also releasing figures. McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics and author of the Art Basel report, said: “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.”
McAndrew’s data included auction information from Collectrium and Art Market Monitor of Artron (AMMA), a dealer survey was sent out to 6500 dealers across the world with over 1100 dealers responding, and a survey of high net worth individual (HNWIs) was undertaken with Swiss banking group UBS.
Comparison to TEFAF Art Market Report
Earlier this month an art market report from TEFAF, by new author Rachel Pownall of Maastricht University, also revealed similar themes in the assessment of the market.
It found dealer sales made up 62.5% of the art market compared with 37.5% sold at auction in 2016. The shift was put down to a greater desire for “privacy and anonymity… in times of austerity and political tensions”.
Total global sales of art in 2016 were $45bn, according to Pownall’s report which is an effective 1.7% increase on her comparable figure for 2015. In terms of market share she found the US was top overall at 29.5%, the UK second at 24% and China at 18%, a slight decline on the previous year.