Paris, 24 June 2011, Art Media Agency (AMA).
The Conseil des Ventes Volontaires (France ‘s National Public Auctions Advisory) has released its annual report on the French and international auction markets.
As stated in the ArtPrice report, the Chinese market has moved into first place ahead of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Switzerland. According to the Public Auctions Advisory analysis, the Beijing market features the largest volume of transactions, amounting to €4.35 billion. New York is the runner-up with €3.18 billion; London is in second place with €2.35 billion, then Hong Kong with €1.12 billion and finally Paris, with a turnover of less than a billion at €971 million. These five markets represent 64% of the global market.
By way of comparison, the Bank of International Settlements’ Triennial Survey shows that $8 billion are exchanged on the interest rate market every day, $3.2 billion on the foreign exchange markets and slightly less than $500 billion on the stock market.
Across all sectors of the auction market, China now holds 34.3% of the market, compared to 24.2% in 2009. The amount of exchanges, if Hong Kong is included, is thought to have doubled between 2009 and 2010, leaping to €7.6 billion from €3.21 billion.
Of the top four markets in the world, only France’s results have declined, with a 2.2% drop from 2009 and a turnover of €2.2 billion. Although the French market in general has dropped, the art and collector’s objects sector has regressed by 6.4%.
The United States features a progression of 62%, represents 27% of the market share and total sales amounted to €5.98 billion. The UK shows an even higher progression of 70%, but only holds 14.9% of the market share, with a sales volume of €3.29 billion. Of the fifty-four countries analysed by the Public Auctions Advisory, only 13% experienced a drop in sales in 2010 and generally speaking, the global auction market is growing. The art and collectors’ object section shows a progression of 66% from 2010 with goods to the amount of €22.15 billion sold at auctions.
Germany and Switzerland are hot on the heels of France with respective sales figures of €761 million and €622 million, a progression of 14% and 48%.
To a certain extent, Sotheby’s and Christie’s form a duopoly of the art and collectors’ object markets, as they represent a third of all sales figures. The two auction houses head the auction house rankings – with Christie’s sales figure at €3.37 billion and Sotheby’s at €3.31 billion. In France, auction houses have experienced a boom of 273% since 2002, while Hôtel Drouot and their seventy-four auction houses showed an increase of 19% over the same period and 6.5% in 2010. Artcurial, a French auction house, features on the list of highest ranking auction houses in twentieth position. Chinese auction houses occupy ten of the top twenty spots and are the undisputed leader of the auction market.