A comprehensive report on the growing online art market is due to be presented at the inaugural edition of Tefaf Spring in New York (4-8 May). The announcement was made Friday, 10 March, in Maastricht at Tefaf's annual symposium, where the Dutch fair’s annual art market report was presented by the economist Rachel Pownall. She took over this year from Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics, the author of the report for the past eight years.
While compiling the data for Tefaf's report, it became clear to Pownall that online sales were an important aspect to the art market and she wanted to give sufficient emphasis to it with a standalone report. “There has been an almost exponential growth in the online market in recent years,” Pownall says. “The growth is not in the higher end, but the lower end of sales.” Her survey of art and antiques dealers revealed that 67% expected their online third-party sales to increase.
The report will use information from Invaluable, the online marketplace for art, antiques and collectibles, which has a comprehensive database of auction results.
Meanwhile, McAndrew, who joined Art Basel in 2016, is due to present her first report for the Swiss fair at the forthcoming Art Basel in Hong Kong (23-25 March).