Global sales of art fell 11pc in 2016, new report says, and dealers at Art Basel see fewer Chinese collectors this year
Greater China becomes biggest art auctions market as US sales value drops and more art is exchanged in private deals, says first Art Basel/UBS art market report – more gloomy than rival Tefaf’s recent verdict
The global art market fell 11 per cent to US$56.6 billion in 2016 according to a new report published on Wednesday, suggesting the industry is in a more parlous state than previously thought.
The first Art Basel/UBS annual art market report showed sharper drops in key indicators than a report published earlier this month by Tefaf, a rival art fair operator, which said global sales last year were more or less flat compared to 2015.
The Art Basel/UBS report, which surveyed 1,100 international dealers, also found that auctions bore the brunt of the decline, with sales down 26 per cent from a year ago.
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“It was a bad year for the US. The art market there broke four years of growth to go back to 2013 levels. Uncertainties ahead of the presidential election affected sellers’ plans and there was a shortage of supply at the top end,” said Clare McAndrew, author of the report. The US remained the world’s largest art market with a 40 per cent share, down from 43 per cent and well ahead of the UK (21 per cent) and China (20 per cent).
McAndrew said the size of the Chinese market, including Hong Kong, had not seen major adjustments since its unprecedented growth in the two years after 2009, when Beijing unleashed its 4 trillion yuan economic stimulus programme. However, it became the world’s largest auctions market last year because of the slowdown in the US and the shift from auctions sales to private deals in the US and in Europe.
“The US and Europe have a strong private dealers system but that is not yet the case in Asia,” she said.
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