Art market

Art marketcomment

How 2022 will be crunch time for culture and climate

Carbon analyst and performance poet Danny Chivers says the art world can set an example by making sustainability core to the making, exhibiting and selling of art

Feeling demotivated? Sign up for an art career mentor

Art Market Mentors is looking for mentees for next year's programme, and applications close on 31 December

In latest feud over Robert Indiana’s legacy, Morgan Art Foundation claims publisher hid thousands of artworks and lied under oath

The foundation claims publisher Michael McKenzie “made a mockery of the discovery process” and “repeatedly thumbed his nose” at the court

Art marketfeature

Norwegian artist opens huge 'art space' near the Arctic Circle—which, despite appearances, is a commercial gallery

Kjell Erik Killi Olsen—one of Norway's richest artists— has funded Kjøpmannsgata Ung Kunst (KUK) in his hometown of Trondheim. But what exactly is its business model?

Auctions in China accounted for 36% of global market in 2020, new report finds

The latest China Art & Wealth White Paper found that domestic annual sales dropped by 20% to $6.2bn last year, due to Covid-19 controls, but recovered quickly later in the year

Art marketinterview

'Very, very strange and wildly illiquid': Freakonomics' Stephen Dubner on the 'bizarre' art market

The New York-based author has just released a three-part podcast series on The Hidden Side of the Art Market. Here, he speaks about what he learned—and why art is a bad financial investment, but a good emotional one

Art marketanalysis

Have price and value in the art market parted ways for good?

In the current climate, where a teenaged NFT artist can sell for $2.9m and Old Masters have fallen out of fashion, the fickle art market has become the presiding judge of aesthetic achievement

Jenni Crain, artist and dealer at Gordon Robichaux gallery in New York, has died of Covid-19, aged 30

She "championed women, particularly those who made important contributions to the development and legacies of feminism"

Christie’s 2021 sales total $7.1bn, with $150m from NFTs and $103.4m from the most expensive work sold this year, a Picasso

Results are the highest since 2015 and come in just behind Sotheby’s $7.3bn. Hong Kong expansion plan will continue despite Beijing crackdown, as auction house "separates what is political and what is business"

European Commission clamps down further on ivory trade

Restrictions upgraded as part of new EU Directive against environmental crime and, although targeted at raw ivory, will “suspend issuing certificates for worked specimens acquired after 1947 except for pre-1975 musical instruments"

From NFTs to LFTs: 2021's biggest art stories—and what they mean

The Art Newspaper team picks apart this year’s most important developments, from demands for colonial restitution to the return of culture wars

Hosted by Ben Luke. With guest speakers Anna Brady, Martin Bailey and Jane Morris. Produced by Julia Michalska, David Clack and Aimee Dawson. With Henrietta Bentall
Sponsored byChristie's

Sotheby’s owner Patrick Drahi reportedly considering taking auction house public

Drahi bought Sotheby’s less than three years ago, took it private and began implementing a series of cost-cutting measures

Tefaf Maastricht 'postpones' March fair—but some exhibitors are outraged over refund policy

The Dutch event is asking all dealers to pay €7,500 "towards expenses and other contractual obligations". A new date for the fair next year is to be confirmed

Sotheby’s sales for 2021 surpass $7.3bn, the highest total in company history

The firm’s sales were bolstered by a sharp increase in online bidders, who accounted for 92% of all bids this year

The Armory Show’s 2022 edition will have a distinct focus on Latin American art

For the first time in its four-decade history, the fair’s curatorial programming will be led by experts in Latinx and Latin American art

Rare watercolour by Victorian artist born without arms or legs could sell for up to £5,000

Sarah Biffin was an accomplished miniaturist who was so famous in her lifetime Charles Dickens referred to her in three novels

NFTblog

Crypto crochet: digital replica of cardigan worn by pop star Harry Styles auctioned as NFT

The Watermelon Sugar star's knitted garment, designed by JW Anderson, became an internet sensation last year

And the award goes to… my wholly personal choices of the best of the art world in 2021

Bendor Grosvenor selects his favourite exhibition, discovery, book and auction consignment of the year

Lawyer who sparked criminal probe into Guy Wildenstein tax case found guilty of fraudulently hiding $5.1m

Claude Dumont-Beghi has managed to partially challenge her conviction, though judges uphold money laundering decision

What to do when faced with adversity? Hannah Traore set to open her namesake gallery in 2022

The 26-year-old decided to launch a business, focusing on marginalised artists, after the pandemic forced Fotografiska to temporarily close and she lost her job

Art marketanalysis

NFTs, Banksy and Asia’s ascent: 2021, the year the art market was turned on its head

The past year will mostly be remembered for the ongoing social and economic convulsions caused by Covid-19. But in the art trade, the old world order was being demolished

Frieze Los Angeles reveals details of its 2022 edition

With 100 galleries and a new public art programme, the fair is moving ahead in a new location despite the Omicron variant’s creeping influence over the art fair stratosphere

'There are too many auctions and not enough collectors': Christie's and Sotheby's thin Old Master sales fetch a combined £29.3m in London

The star of the sales was a pair of half-length portraits by Van Dyck that sold for £6.2m at Sotheby's, the second-highest price for the artist at auction

Art advisors Gurr Johns buys (another) auction house, 'catering to an under-loved sector of the market for works of art under $100,000'

The firm is buying the London-based books and works on paper specialist Forum Auctions—it previously bought Dreweatts and Bloomsbury for £1.25m in 2017

Billionaire collector Michael Steinhardt surrenders 180 stolen artefacts worth $70m

The items have been under investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney since 2017

NFT project sells for $91.8m, debatably achieving the highest price ever for a work by a living artist

Sales of the new project by Pak point to increasing gamification in the NFT market, though the superlative total sum comes with a number of caveats

Sylvester Stallone reveals he used to sell his paintings for $5 to pay for the bus to school

Actor-turned-artist opens third museum show in Germany with experimental works painted almost 60 years ago

Banksynews

Banksy will sell jailbreak stencil for £10m to turn Reading prison into art centre

The now-defunct jail once held playwright Oscar Wilde on charges of gross indecency between 1895 and 1897