Displaying items by tag: european fine art foundation

Gagosian, one of the world's leading art dealerships, is opening a new gallery in London's smart Mayfair district, its third outpost in the British capital and its 15th worldwide.

With the global art market rising 7 percent in 2014 to some 51 billion euros ($57.74 billion), according to a report by the European Fine Art Foundation, there is more and more competition among top end galleries.

The art market surpassed its pre-recession high last year with global sales of €51 billion, according to the just-released annual report commissioned by The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF). The analysis, authored by Dr. Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics, also revealed that three countries are responsible for 83 percent of the worldwide trade in art: the United States (39 percent), China (22 percent), and the United Kingdom (22 percent). Though aggregate sales surpassed the market’s 2007 amount of €48 billion, the volume of transactions did not surpass the 2007 high-water mark, though volumes were up 6 percent year-over-year at 39 million deals in 2014.

Of particular note were trends in the postwar and contemporary category, dominated by the United States (with a 46 percent share), which reached €5.9 billion — its highest known level and a year-over-year gain of 19 percent.

Auction houses expect to sell as much as $2.3 billion of art in New York this month as billionaires from China to Brazil compete for trophy works by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Jeff Koons in a surging market.

Two weeks of semiannual sales of Impressionist, modern, postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s, Sotheby’s (BID) and Phillips begin May 6, with online bidding as early as today. Their combined sales target represents a 77 percent increase from estimates for a similar round of auctions a year ago.

According to a report by Arts Economics, global sales of art and antiquities fetched $65.9 billion in 2013, an annual growth of 8 percent. The report, which was published by the European Fine Art Foundation in Maastricht, Netherlands, showed that the global art market is almost on par with the pre-recession years.

The sale of postwar and contemporary artworks has increased by 11 percent from 2012, led mainly by sales in the United States, which increased by 25 percent in 2013. Last year, astronomical auction records were set for Andy Warhol ($105.4 million), Francis Bacon ($142.4 million), and Roy Lichtenstein ($56.1 million). The report solidified the U.S.’ role as the international art market leader, representing 38 percent of the market by volume, a 5 percent increase from 2012.

China accounted for 24 percent of the market, a slight decline from 2012, while the U.K. represented 20 percent.