The art auction market - United States

1.1 Definition and scope of study

The art market refers to the production and trade of works of art and antiques. The art auction market focuses on auctions, which accounted for 42% of global art sales in 2019, and therefore excludes art dealer sales (58% of global sales) which are the subject of another study.

According to Wondeur AI's classification, the production of works of art is divided between star artists (1% of the world's artists), celebrated artists (1%), established artists (14%) and emerging and under-represented artists (84%).

The art market can also be segmented by category of work (sculpture, painting etc.), by period (contemporary, modern etc.) or by price range.

The global art auction market was worth US$24.2 billion in 2019, a 17% decline from 2018 after two consecutive years of growth. However, private sales, a minority, increased, with Sotheby's and Christie's selling $1.8 billion worth of art on the private circuit.

The sector is largely dominated by the United States, China and the United Kingdom, which accounted for 84% of the market value in 2019. The global market is traditionally very closed and is dominated by large auction houses such as Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Poly Auction, China Guardian and Heritage Auctions.

The United States is the leading art market, for auctions as well as for art dealers and galleries, despite the 23% decline in the value of public auctions between 2018 and 2019. That of private sales, on the other hand, has increased.

Moreover, the market is going digital, not only with the increase in purchases on the Internet but also by the growing influence on consumers of digital tools and social networks such as Instagram. This trend accelerated even more during the containment of the Covid-19 outbreak.