Art Market Blog - Art Market Facts and Figures from 2007 2007 saw an explosion of the price of art around the globe resulting in one of the most significant years that the art market has ever seen so I put some facts and figures together.
News-Antique.com - Jan 21,2008 - Art Market Blog - Art Market Facts and Figures from 2007
2007 saw an explosion of the price of art around the globe resulting in one of the most significant years that the art market has ever seen so I thought that I would put together a few interesting facts and figures that represent the achievements and milestones of 2007.
-Auction house Bonham’s totalled $590 Million in sales in 2007 which was a 25% increase over 2006
-Sotheby’s and Christie’s each sold about $6 Billion dollars of art in 2007
-According to the European Fine Art Foundation the value of global art market sales increased 95% between 2002 and 2006
-In 2007 Christie’s sold a total of 793 works at auction for over $1 million
-During 2007 Christie’s achieved the highest half yearly sales total in art market history
-Auction sale price guarantees had risen to an estimated $800 million by November 2007
-Sotheby’s net profit for the nine months to September 07 was $111 million which is triple that of the previous year.
-The combined total of Russian art sold by Christie’s and Sotheby’s in 2007 was $324.9 million, an increase of 45% over 2006
-The record for the most spent at a single auction was set by Christie’s with their November 2007 sale of Impressionist art which brought in $491.4 million
-Damien Hirst became the most expensive living artist at auction with the sale of his Lullaby Spring pill cabinet for $19.1 million at Sotheby’s in June 2007
-A Mark Rothko painting became the most expensive work of post-war art sold at auction when it sold for $72.8 million at Sotheby’s New York in May 07
*Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.