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Art Market Review 2021
A review of the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2022
From coronavirus to conflict. Just as the global impact of the pandemic had begun to ease in many parts of the world, the appalling invasion of Ukraine by Russia has brought war back to Europe and uncertainty to the wider international community.
As the world watches on, witnesses in real-time to the awful events as they continue to unfold before our eyes, we cannot help but be moved by the defiance, bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people.
"Resilience is a keyword in the 2022 Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. Looking back over 2021, the art market bounced back strongly from the COVID-19 driven challenges of 2020."
Following its biggest recession for a decade, global sales of art and antiques reached an estimated $65.1 billion – representing a significant 29% increase on 2020, and out-performing the pre-pandemic year of 2019 by $0.7 billion.
For the international art community the headlines make encouraging reading. All segments of the art market grew in 2021. Aggregate sales in the international dealers’ market reached an estimated $34.7 billion, an increase of 18% on 2020, though still below the 2019 result. Online art sales continued to expand, increasing by 7% to an estimated $13.3 billion. This represented a 20% share of total global sales, down 5% in share on 2020, but still more than double the level of 2019.
Notably though it was the auction sector which recorded the strongest recovery, with public sales of fine and decorative art and antiques increasing by 47% to $26.3 billion. Private sales by auction houses also continued to grow. Despite a return to a more normalised auction calendar after the extensive disruption of 2020, private sales increased by 32% to an estimated $4.1 billion, including $3.0 billion reported by Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
Collectively this dramatic increase in sales was driven by the significant supply of high-quality works brought to market, together with an influx of willing and in many cases new buyers. The US, China and the UK remained the dominant international markets with 78% of auction sales by value (down from 81% in 2020 and 84% in 2019). Greater China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) remained the largest market for public auction sales with 33% (down from 36% in 2020), just ahead of the US which accounted for 32% (up from 29%) and the UK 13% (down from 16%).
UK challenges and US ascendency
The UK art market’s performance is indicative of the specific challenges it has faced over the last two years – the COVID-19 pandemic and the formal exit from the EU in January 2021. While at a high level the increase in auction sales to $3.4 billion represented a 23% increase from 2020, sales were still below the $4 billion recorded in 2019.
This trend also mirrors the overall UK art market’s position. 2021 recorded a 14% increase on the previous year to reach total sales of $11.3 billion, but still well below the $12.2 billion recorded in 2019. The UK market’s recovery appears to have been at the expense of not only the US but also European countries, many of whom recorded strong double-digit growth.
Since Brexit all imports from the EU to the UK have been subject to VAT and customs checks, thereby challenging the UK’s ability to attract the most expensive works of art for sale.
The weakened position of the UK art market is reflected in the major auction sales occurring in New York not London. Analysis of the two leading international auction houses, Christie’s and Sotheby’s, is compelling1. Out of the top 100 items sold at auction during 2021, just 19 sold in London (11 at Christie’s and eight at Sotheby’s). The highest UK lot, placed thirty-second by value, was Wassily Kandinsky’s Tensions calmées (1937) realising $29.4m at Sotheby’s in June.
By contrast the highest valued painting sold at auction was Pablo Picasso’s Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) (1932) which realised $103.4m at Christie’s New York in May. Picasso’s painting of his muse and lover Marie-Thérèse Walter was the first lot to exceed the coveted $100m threshold since Claude Monet Meules (1891) sold at Sotheby’s New York for $110.7m in May 2019. In total 13 works sold at auction above $50m in 2021, a significant increase from 2020 where just two works exceeded this level and nine works in 2019.
The second highest auction lot was Jean Michel Basquiat’s In this case (1983) sold for $93.1m at Christie’s New York in May. The American graffiti artist, who died of a heroin overdose in 1988 aged just 27, has seen an explosion in auction values in recent years. In 2017 Basquiat’s painting Untitled (1982) sold at Sotheby’s New York for $110.5m to simultaneously become the most expensive work by an American artist and most expensive painting created after 1980.
In 2021 Sotheby’s and Christie’s collectively recorded six works by Basquiat within their top 100 lots sold at auction (five of which sold in the US), including Versus Medici (1982) which realised $50.8m at Sotheby’s New York in May. Basquiat’s stellar international auction pedigree was further underlined by the sale of Warrior (1982) for $41.7m at Christie’s Hong Kong in March – setting the record for the most expensive work by a Western artist to sell in Asia.
The third highest lot realised at auction was the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli’s Portrait of a young man holding a roundel (c. 1480). Brought to auction in January 2021 its sale set the tone for the recovery of the art market from its COVID-19 driven recession. The painting’s rarity, exceptional condition and provenance, enabled the work to sell for $92.2m. This dwarfed the previous auction record for Botticelli of $10.4m achieved in 2013, and made the work the second highest Old Master painting ever sold at auction – only surpassed by Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi which fetched a stratospheric $450.3m in 2017.
Notably the Botticelli was sold at Sotheby’s New York saleroom, rather than in London, where traditionally Old Master works are auctioned, and indeed where the work itself was last sold for $1.3m at Christies in 1982.
As in other strong performing years for the auction market, sales were considerably bolstered by a single blue-chip consignment, here provided by the sale of real estate tycoon Harry Macklowe and his wife Linda’s, world-class art collection. The sale, arranged by Sotheby’s New York, was the result of particularly acrimonious divorce proceedings requiring the break-up of their exceptional collection.
The artistic and financial importance of the collection, meticulously built up by the Macklowes' over 57 years of marriage, led Sotheby’s to astutely bring the 65 lots to market over two high profile sales – the first in November 2021 and the second in June 2022.
The November tranche of the Macklowe collection sale saw the 35 lots collectively realise a staggering $676.1m, making it the most valuable auction in Sotheby’s 277-year history2. Four of the top 10 lots and 18 of the top 100 lots sold by Sotheby’s and Christie’s New York and London hubs, were realised in the sale1.
These included works by Picasso, Warhol, Rothko, Richter, Pollock, Giacometti, de Kooning and Twombly. Indeed, the fourth and fifth most expensive auction works of the year were from the Macklowe sale - Mark Rothko No. 7 ($82.5m) and Alberto Giacometti Le Nez ($78.4m).
Uncertainty
As 2021 closed, the art market entered 2022 with renewed confidence. Then in February, after weeks of speculation and denial, Russia invaded Ukraine. The world looks very different once again, and tragically not for the better.
Now we are facing a very different, but no less real, threat of contagion to that of coronavirus spreading beyond the borders of Ukraine and into Europe. The political implications of Russia’s actions, including the increasing evidence of appalling atrocities in Ukraine, will be far-reaching and significant.
What is not yet clear is how the extensive range of economic sanctions imposed by the UK government and other leading nations will affect the international art market.
What we do know is uncertainty can cause the market to stall, as witnessed in recent years, severely testing its resilience during 2022 and beyond.
Unless stated otherwise all figures quoted are from the Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2023
1 Artnet Price Database Fine Art and Design
2 Sotheby's