The global art market declined by 4% in 2023 – Kommersant

Global art sales in 2023 amounted to approximately $65 billion, according to a joint report Art Basel and UBS. This is 4% less than in 2022, when sales reached $67.8 billion, but better than the pre-pandemic level of $64.4 billion.

The number of transactions on the world market increased by the same 4%, to 39.4 million. But, as noted in the report, the unpredictable economic situation in the world and high geopolitical risks led to the fact that the most expensive objects of art began to be sold and bought less often , and items costing no more than $50 thousand were in great demand.

The largest art market remains USA. They accounted for 42% of sales volume at the end of 2023. Nevertheless, compared to 2022, the American market dropped by 10%, to $27.2 billion. Other large markets also lost in volume. The only exception was Chinawhere trade volume increased by 9%, to $12.2 billion, which allowed the PRC (including Hong Kong) to overtake in sales volume UK ($10.9 billion at the end of 2023) and take second place in the world.

The volume of transactions completed in the online market increased by 7% compared to the previous year and reached $11.8 billion. But despite the overall increase in the popularity of online auctions, luxury art objects are still purchased and sold almost exclusively offline – at auction in auction houses. And in the online segment, 58% of transactions were for art objects worth less than $50 thousand.

Finally, after peaking in popularity in 2021, art-related digital tokens (NFTs) are becoming less and less interesting to investors. Their sales fell for the second year in a row. Compared to 2022, the drop was 51%, and the volume of transactions was only $1.2 billion compared to $2.9 billion in 2021.

Kirill Sarkhanyants