The art dealer and gallery market - United Kingdom

1.1 Definition and scope of study

The art market refers to the production and trade of works of art and antiques. The art dealer and gallery market focuses on sales by art dealers, which represented 58% of global art sales in 2019, and therefore excludes auctions (42% of global sales) which are the topic 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.

Worldwide sales by art dealers were worth US$36.8 billion in 2019, a 2% decline from 2018. However, actors with sales of less than 1 million dollars experienced a sharp decline (- 9%) in contrast to those whose sales were between 250,000 and 500,000 dollars (+ 17%).

The biggest challenges for the next 5 years cited by art dealers in 2019 will be to find new customers and to face the economic and geopolitical situation which strongly influences the demand for art.

In the United Kingdom, the art market is affected in particular by Brexit and by the anti-money laundering law that came into force in January 2020 in line with the European directive 5AMLD.

Despite these elements of uncertainty, the UK art dealer and gallery market remains the second largest in the worldand the largest in Europe. In 2020, 71% of art dealers and gallery owners expect their sales to remain stable or increase over the next 5 years.