According to Thierry Ehrmann, Artprice’s founder, “art market history will remember 2008 as a turning point, switching from speculative euphoria to sharp contraction. The multi-million dollar sales of the spring gave way to extreme buyer wariness in the autumn as the art market fell victim to the spreading global economic and financial crisis. Exactly when and why did the meltdown occur? Artprice’s annual art market report for 2008 answers these questions and provides valuable insights into likely developments through 2009”.
Artprice publishes its exclusive art market report distributed to over 6,300 media organisations and international institutions every year. Based on roughly 5.4 million auction results from approximately 2,900 auctioneers, the annual report “Art Market Trends 2008” contains 39 pages of micro- and macro-economic analyses, focusing on individual sales and general price evolutions in all segments of the market. Edited by ArtMarketInsight (Artprice’s press agency) in collaboration with Artprice’s Econometrics team, the report also contains a number of original rankings such as the year’s TOP 500 artists by sales revenue and TOP 100 highest hammer prices.
After seven consecutive years of price inflation, the art market buckled under the weight of the systemic crisis at the end of 2008. The combined impact on the art market of the financial and economic crises was particularly felt in the Unites States and on the market’s most volatile segment, contemporary art. The rapid price inflation on so-called ’emerging’ art markets also seems to have come to a dead halt and the first half of 2009 will be an interesting test of confidence for Russian, Asian, Turkish and Indian collectors, amongst others.
Download the entire document in PDF format (free of charge) http://imgpublic.artprice.com/pdf/trends2008_en.pdf Contents – From peak to trough – Black October and auction failures – Volatility of Contemporary art prices – The United States in crisis – London: new capital of the Fine Art market – Christie’s and Sotheby’s – Art Market Confidence Index – The TOP 10 artists – Top 100 hammer price 2008 – Top 500 Artprice 2008 Artists ranked by auction turnover
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