PARIS, July 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — thierry Ehrmann, Artprice’s founder/CEO, highlights the art market’s excellent performance in H1 2019: “A collector who, at the start of this year, invested in the 100 most successful artists of the last five years (2014-2018), would already be looking at a value accretion of almost a sixth in the value of his/her portfolio.”
The Artprice100 © index gained +16% over the first half of 2019 while the S&P 500 added +18% over the same period. The similarity in the performances between the American financial markets and a portfolio of works by the world’s top performing artists (defined in a purely objective manner) proves the undeniable attractiveness of the Art Market as an alternative investment.
Fewer transactions
The performance of the Artprice100© over the first half of 2019 was driven by exceptionally strong demand, barely satisfied by supply. The supply/demand imbalance, generated a rapid increase in value, particularly on works by the 100 top performing artists on the global secondary art market.
The turnover slowdown recorded in H1 2019 by major auction houses, including Sotheby’s (-9%) and Christie’s (-28%), reflects a less dynamic high-end market than in previous years. However, prices have shown no signs of fatigue and the contraction in the volume of sales is a reminder that the art market is directly dependent on the number of works in circulation.
In a financial context of sustained negative or near-zero refinancing rates, some collectors are probably preferring to hold certain artworks and not cash in on investments that remain highly competitive. Moreover, the persistence of extremely high transaction costs, both in galleries and in auction rooms, is discouraging short holding periods (under five years), and tempting some collectors to consider private transactions as an alternative.
The Artprice100© index driven by Warhol, Zao Wou-Ki and Wu Guanzhong
Heavily weighted in our Artprice100© index with 9.1% of the portfolio, Pablo Picasso has not contributed to its value accretion for several years. As we have seen over the last four years, his prices contracted -2% in the first half of 2019.
However, Andy Warhol, Fu Baoshi, Zao Wou-Kiand particularly Wu Guanzhong have all clearly enjoyed value accretion, providing the main thrust for the progression of our Artprice100© index in H1 2019. Without setting any new auction records, these artists have all enjoyed strong price inflation. The sale of major works by these artists will no doubt confirm the trend.
On 2 June last, a large drawing by Wu Guanzhong entitled Lion grove garden (1988) fetched $20.8 million at China Guardian. It was previously acquired for $17.8 million on 3 June 2011 at Poly Beijing. Adding 17% over the last eight years, the drawing generated, in financial terms, an average annual return of +1.9%. However, another Guanzhong resale suggests that the bulk of the value accretion on his works has occurred in the last 6 months: an important Guanzhong work entitled Two Swallows was purchased for $7.1 million on 3 June 2011 (at the same sale as Lion grove garden) and fetched $7.8 million in December 2018, an increase of just +9.8%.
Paul Cézanne and George Condo
Investments in Modern artists carry the least risk and demand for their work is continuing to grow steadily offering attractive returns over the long term. Claude Monet and Paul Signac have both signed new auction records this year. Similarly, 2019 is already proving to be a superb year (the best since 2000) for Paul Cézanne. His painting Bouilloire et fruits (c. 1888-90), acquired for $29.5 million in 1999, fetched $59.3 million on 13 May 2019 at Christie’s New York, generating an average annual ROI of 3.6% over 20 years.
At the other end of the spectrum, Contemporary artists offer striking returns in the medium and short term. The most spectacular entry into the composition of the Artprice100© index this year is undoubtedly George Condo. The American artist enjoyed a massive secondary market success in 2018with 78 paintings and 34 drawings selling for more than $63 million, and on three continents (America, Europe and Asia)! The Condo phenomenon has been clearly illustrated by a number of rapid resales of small works including Soft Green Abstraction (1983), which was purchased for $17,000 in April 2017 in Munich and resold a year later in New York for $46,000.
In total, there were seven changes this year in the composition of the Artprice 100© index.
In | Out |
George Condo | Huang Binhong |
Giorgio Morandi | Huang Zhou |
Robert Motherwell | Anish Kapoor |
Jean Paul Riopelle | Li Keran |
Rufino Tamayo | Xu Beihong |
Frank Auerbach | Pieter Brueghel II |
Hans Arp | Giorgio de Chirico |
Four women… and two Old Masters
Unfortunately, we see no change regarding female artists. This year again, only four of the artists in the Artprice100© are women: Yayoi Kusama (Japan), Joan Mitchell (US), Louise Bourgeois (France) and Barbara Hepworth (UK). Yayoi Kusama now represents 1.3% of the index compared with 0.9% last year. Her price index rose 20% in H1 2019.
The relegation of Pieter Brueghel II for reasons relating to market liquidity has exacerbated the rarity of Old Masters in the index. Numerically, the composition of the index is dominated by Modern artists, numbering 49, followed by Post-War artists (29), Contemporary artists (12), 19th century artists (8) and lastly… Old Masters (only 2).
Composition of Artprice100© index for H1 2019
Artist – Share – Period
- Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973) – 9.1% – Modern
- Andy WARHOL (1928-1987) – 6.4% – Post-War
- Claude MONET (1840-1926) – 4.5% – 19th Century
- QI Baishi (1864-1957) – 3.9% – Modern
- Jean-Michel BASQUIAT (1960-1988) – 3.7% – Contemporary
- Gerhard RICHTER (b. 1932) – 3.3% – Post-War
- ZAO Wou-Ki (1921-2013) – 2.9% – Post-War
- FU Baoshi (1904-1965) – 2.5% – Modern
- Alberto GIACOMETTI (1901-1966) – 2.4% – Modern
- Amedeo MODIGLIANI (1884-1920) – 2.2% – Modern
- Cy TWOMBLY (1928-2011) – 2.2% – Post-War
- WU Guanzhong (1919-2010) – 2.1% – Modern
- Roy LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997) – 2.0% – Post-War
- Lucio FONTANA (1899-1968) – 1.9% – Modern
- Alexander CALDER (1898-1976) – 1.8% – Modern
- Marc CHAGALL (1887-1985) – 1.8% – Modern
- Joan MIRO (1893-1983) – 1.7% – Modern
- Willem DE KOONING (1904-1997) – 1.7% – Modern
- Henri MATISSE (1869-1954) – 1.5% – Modern
- Fernand LÉGER (1881-1955) – 1.4% – Modern
- Christopher WOOL (b. 1955) 1.4% – Contemporary
- Yayoi KUSAMA (b. 1929) – 1.3% – Post-War
- Jean DUBUFFET (1901-1985) – 1.3% – Modern
- René MAGRITTE (1898-1967) – 1.2% – Modern
- Peter DOIG (b. 1959) – 1.2% – Contemporary
- Wassily KANDINSKY (1866-1944) – 1.2% – Modern
- Jeff KOONS (b. 1955) – 1.2% – Contemporary
- David HOCKNEY (b. 1937) – 1.1% – Post-War
- Henry MOORE (1898-1986) – 1.0% – Modern
- LIN Fengmian (1900-1991) – 0.9% – Modern
- CHU Teh-Chun (1920-2014) – 0.9% – Post-War
- Paul GAUGUIN (1848-1903) – 0.9% – 19th Century
- Pierre-Auguste RENOIR (1841-1919) – 0.8% – 19th Century
- SAN Yu (1895-1966) – 0.8% – Modern
- Richard PRINCE (b. 1949) – 0.8% – Contemporary
- Sigmar POLKE (1941-2010) – 0.7% – Post-War
- Joan MITCHELL (1926-1992) – 0.7% – Post-War
- PU Ru (1896-1963) – 0.7% – Modern
- Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) – 0.7% – 19th Century
- Edgar DEGAS (1834-1917) – 0.7% – 19th Century
- Paul CÉZANNE (1839-1906) – 0.7% – 19th Century
- Yves KLEIN (1928-1962) – 0.6% – Post-War
- Camille PISSARRO (1830-1903) – 0.6% – 19th Century
- Richard DIEBENKORN (1922-1993) – 0.6% – Post-War
- Ed RUSCHA (b. 1937) – 0.6% – Post-War
- Keith HARING (1958-1990) – 0.5% – Contemporary
- Martin KIPPENBERGER (1953-1997) – 0.5% – Contemporary
- Louise BOURGEOIS (1911-2010) – 0.5% – Modern
- Alberto BURRI (1915-1995) – 0.5% – Modern
- Frank STELLA (b. 1936) – 0.5% – Post-War
- Damien HIRST (b. 1965) – 0.4% – Contemporary
- Egon SCHIELE (1890-1918) – 0.4% – Modern
- Ernst Ludwig KIRCHNER (1880-1938) – 0.4% – Modern
- Georges BRAQUE (1882-1963) – 0.4% – Modern
- Georg BASELITZ (b. 1938) – 0.4% – Post-War
- Pierre SOULAGES (b. 1919) – 0.4% – Modern
- Juan GRIS (1887-1927) – 0.4% – Modern
- Salvador DALI (1904-1989) – 0.4% – Modern
- Edvard MUNCH (1863-1944) – 0.4% – Modern
- Paul SIGNAC (1863-1935) – 0.4% – Modern
- DONG Qichang (1555-1636) – 0.4% – Old Master
- Fernando BOTERO (b. 1932) – 0.4% – Post-War
- WEN Zhengming (1470-1559) – 0.4% – Old Master
- George CONDO (b. 1957) – 0.4% – Contemporary
- Sam FRANCIS (1923-1994) – 0.4% – Post-War
- Alighiero BOETTI (1940-1994) – 0.4% – Post-War
- Bernard BUFFET (1928-1999) – 0.4% – Post-War
- Max ERNST (1891-1976) – 0.4% – Modern
- Robert RAUSCHENBERG (1925-2008) – 0.4% – Post-War
- CHEN Yifei (1946-2005) – 0.3% – Contemporary
- Maurice DE VLAMINCK (1876-1958) – 0.3% – Modern
- Barbara HEPWORTH (1903-1975) – 0.3% – Modern
- Pierre BONNARD (1867-1947) – 0.3% – Modern
- Donald JUDD (1928-1994) – 0.3% – Post-War
- Max BECKMANN (1884-1950) – 0.3% – Modern
- Tsuguharu FOUJITA (1886-1968) – 0.3% – Modern
- Alfred SISLEY (1839-1899) – 0.3% – 19th Century
- Laurence Stephen LOWRY (1887-1976) – 0.3% – Modern
- Morton Wayne THIEBAUD (b. 1920) – 0.3% – Post-War
- Nicolas de STAËL (1914-1955) – 0.3% – Modern
- Enrico CASTELLANI (1930-2017) – 0.3% – Post-War
- Anselm KIEFER (b. 1945) – 0.3% – Contemporary
- Michelangelo PISTOLETTO (b. 1933) – 0.3% – Post-War
- GUAN Liang (1900-1986) – 0.3% – Modern
- Kees VAN DONGEN (1877-1968) – 0.3% – Modern
- Francis PICABIA (1879-1953) – 0.3% – Modern
- Piero MANZONI (1933-1963) – 0.3% – Post-War
- Tom WESSELMANN (1931-2004) – 0.3% – Post-War
- Giorgio MORANDI (1890-1964) – 0.3% – Modern
- Günther UECKER (b. 1930) – 0.2% – Post-War
- Josef ALBERS (1888-1976) – 0.2% – Modern
- Robert MOTHERWELL (1915-1991) – 0.2% – Modern
- Rufino TAMAYO (1899-1991) – 0.2% – Modern
- Hans ARP (1886-1966) – 0.2% – Modern
- Emil NOLDE (1867-1956) – 0.2% – Modern
- Paul KLEE (1879-1940) – 0.2% – Modern
- Jean-Paul RIOPELLE (1923-2002) – 0.2% – Post-War
- Alexej VON JAWLENSKY (1864-1941) – 0.2% – Modern
- Albert OEHLEN (b. 1954) – 0.2% – Contemporary
- Frank AUERBACH (b. 1931) – 0.2% – Post-War
Copyright ©2019 thierry Ehrmann – www.artprice.com – www.artmarket.com
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Having produced more than 60,000 books and auction catalogues, Artron is the world’s largest art book printer with a total print volume of 300 million a year. It has more than 3 million professional members in the arts sector and an average of 15 million daily visits, making it the world’s leading art website.”
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