Jul 15, 2019   SOURCE: PR NewsWire

Artprice100(C): The Art Market's Blue-chip Artists Yield Nearly as Much as the Top Performing Companies in the American Economy

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-Ki and 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

    1. Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973) - 9.1% - Modern
    2. Andy WARHOL (1928-1987) - 6.4% - Post-War
    3. Claude MONET (1840-1926) - 4.5% - 19th Century
    4. QI Baishi (1864-1957) - 3.9% - Modern
    5. Jean-Michel BASQUIAT (1960-1988) - 3.7% - Contemporary
    6. Gerhard RICHTER (b. 1932) - 3.3% - Post-War
    7. ZAO Wou-Ki (1921-2013) - 2.9% - Post-War
    8. FU Baoshi (1904-1965) - 2.5% - Modern
    9. Alberto GIACOMETTI (1901-1966) - 2.4% - Modern
    10. Amedeo MODIGLIANI (1884-1920) - 2.2% - Modern
    11. Cy TWOMBLY (1928-2011) - 2.2% - Post-War
    12. WU Guanzhong (1919-2010) - 2.1% - Modern
    13. Roy LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997) - 2.0% - Post-War
    14. Lucio FONTANA (1899-1968) - 1.9% - Modern
    15. Alexander CALDER (1898-1976) - 1.8% - Modern
    16. Marc CHAGALL (1887-1985) - 1.8% - Modern
    17. Joan MIRO (1893-1983) - 1.7% - Modern
    18. Willem DE KOONING (1904-1997) - 1.7% - Modern
    19. Henri MATISSE (1869-1954) - 1.5% - Modern
    20. Fernand LÉGER (1881-1955) - 1.4% - Modern
    21. Christopher WOOL (b. 1955) 1.4% - Contemporary
    22. Yayoi KUSAMA (b. 1929) - 1.3% - Post-War
    23. Jean DUBUFFET (1901-1985) - 1.3% - Modern
    24. René MAGRITTE (1898-1967) - 1.2% - Modern
    25. Peter DOIG (b. 1959) - 1.2% - Contemporary
    26. Wassily KANDINSKY (1866-1944) - 1.2% - Modern
    27. Jeff KOONS (b. 1955) - 1.2% - Contemporary
    28. David HOCKNEY (b. 1937) - 1.1% - Post-War
    29. Henry MOORE (1898-1986) - 1.0% - Modern
    30. LIN Fengmian (1900-1991) - 0.9% - Modern
    31. CHU Teh-Chun (1920-2014) - 0.9% - Post-War
    32. Paul GAUGUIN (1848-1903) - 0.9% - 19th Century
    33. Pierre-Auguste RENOIR (1841-1919) - 0.8% - 19th Century
    34. SAN Yu (1895-1966) - 0.8% - Modern
    35. Richard PRINCE (b. 1949) - 0.8% - Contemporary
    36. Sigmar POLKE (1941-2010) - 0.7% - Post-War
    37. Joan MITCHELL (1926-1992) - 0.7% - Post-War
    38. PU Ru (1896-1963) - 0.7% - Modern
    39. Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) - 0.7% - 19th Century
    40. Edgar DEGAS (1834-1917) - 0.7% - 19th Century
    41. Paul CÉZANNE (1839-1906) - 0.7% - 19th Century
    42. Yves KLEIN (1928-1962) - 0.6% - Post-War
    43. Camille PISSARRO (1830-1903) - 0.6% - 19th Century
    44. Richard DIEBENKORN (1922-1993) -  0.6% - Post-War
    45. Ed RUSCHA (b. 1937) - 0.6% - Post-War
    46. Keith HARING (1958-1990) - 0.5% - Contemporary
    47. Martin KIPPENBERGER (1953-1997) - 0.5% - Contemporary
    48. Louise BOURGEOIS (1911-2010) - 0.5% - Modern
    49. Alberto BURRI (1915-1995) - 0.5% - Modern
    50. Frank STELLA (b. 1936) - 0.5% - Post-War
    51. Damien HIRST (b. 1965) - 0.4% - Contemporary
    52. Egon SCHIELE (1890-1918) - 0.4% - Modern
    53. Ernst Ludwig KIRCHNER (1880-1938) - 0.4% - Modern
    54. Georges BRAQUE (1882-1963) - 0.4% - Modern
    55. Georg BASELITZ (b. 1938) - 0.4% - Post-War
    56. Pierre SOULAGES (b. 1919) - 0.4% - Modern
    57. Juan GRIS (1887-1927) - 0.4% - Modern
    58. Salvador DALI (1904-1989) - 0.4% - Modern
    59. Edvard MUNCH (1863-1944) - 0.4% - Modern
    60. Paul SIGNAC (1863-1935) - 0.4% - Modern
    61. DONG Qichang (1555-1636) - 0.4% - Old Master
    62. Fernando BOTERO (b. 1932) - 0.4% - Post-War
    63. WEN Zhengming (1470-1559) - 0.4% - Old Master
    64. George CONDO (b. 1957) -  0.4% - Contemporary
    65. Sam FRANCIS (1923-1994) - 0.4% - Post-War
    66. Alighiero BOETTI (1940-1994) - 0.4% - Post-War
    67. Bernard BUFFET (1928-1999) - 0.4% - Post-War
    68. Max ERNST (1891-1976) - 0.4% - Modern
    69. Robert RAUSCHENBERG (1925-2008) - 0.4% - Post-War
    70. CHEN Yifei (1946-2005) - 0.3% - Contemporary
    71. Maurice DE VLAMINCK (1876-1958) - 0.3% - Modern
    72. Barbara HEPWORTH (1903-1975) - 0.3% - Modern
    73. Pierre BONNARD (1867-1947) - 0.3% - Modern
    74. Donald JUDD (1928-1994) - 0.3% - Post-War
    75. Max BECKMANN (1884-1950) - 0.3% - Modern
    76. Tsuguharu FOUJITA (1886-1968) - 0.3% - Modern
    77. Alfred SISLEY (1839-1899) - 0.3% - 19th Century
    78. Laurence Stephen LOWRY (1887-1976) - 0.3% - Modern
    79. Morton Wayne THIEBAUD (b. 1920) - 0.3% - Post-War
    80. Nicolas de STAEL (1914-1955) - 0.3% - Modern
    81. Enrico CASTELLANI (1930-2017) - 0.3% - Post-War
    82. Anselm KIEFER (b. 1945) - 0.3% - Contemporary
    83. Michelangelo PISTOLETTO (b. 1933)  - 0.3% - Post-War
    84. GUAN Liang (1900-1986) -  0.3% - Modern
    85. Kees VAN DONGEN (1877-1968) - 0.3% - Modern
    86. Francis PICABIA (1879-1953) - 0.3% - Modern
    87. Piero MANZONI (1933-1963) - 0.3% - Post-War
    88. Tom WESSELMANN (1931-2004) - 0.3% - Post-War
    89. Giorgio MORANDI (1890-1964) - 0.3% - Modern
    90. Günther UECKER (b. 1930) - 0.2% - Post-War
    91. Josef ALBERS (1888-1976) - 0.2% - Modern
    92. Robert MOTHERWELL (1915-1991) - 0.2% - Modern
    93. Rufino TAMAYO (1899-1991) - 0.2% - Modern
    94. Hans ARP (1886-1966) - 0.2% - Modern
    95. Emil NOLDE (1867-1956) - 0.2% - Modern
    96. Paul KLEE (1879-1940) - 0.2% - Modern
    97. Jean-Paul RIOPELLE (1923-2002) - 0.2% - Post-War
    98. Alexej VON JAWLENSKY (1864-1941) - 0.2% - Modern
    99. Albert OEHLEN (b. 1954) - 0.2% - Contemporary
    100. Frank AUERBACH (b. 1931) - 0.2% - Post-War

Copyright ©2019 thierry Ehrmann - www.artprice.com - www.artmarket.com

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Artprice is the global leader in art price and art index databanks. It has over 30 million indices and auction results covering more than 700,000 artists. Artprice Images® gives unlimited access to the largest Art Market resource in the world: a library of 126 million images or prints of artworks from the year 1700 to the present day, along with comments by Artprice's art historians.

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For its 4,500,000 members, Artprice gives access to the world's leading Standardised Marketplace for buying and selling art. Artprice is preparing its blockchain for the Art Market. It is BPI-labelled (scientific national French label) Artprice's Global Art Market Annual Report for 2018 published last March 2019: https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-art-market-in-2018

Artprice is associated with Artron Group the Chinese leader in the Art Market, its solid institutional partner.

About the Artron Group:

Partners since 2009, in 2018, Artron and Artprice signed a historic agreement to create a "New Silk Road for Art". This initiative is perfectly coherent with China's "One Belt, One Road" (OBOR) or "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI) launched in 2013 and known in Europe as the "New Silk Road".

"Artron Art Group (Artron), a comprehensive cultural industrial group founded in 1993 by Wan jie, is committed to inheriting, enhancing and spreading art value. Based on abundant art data, Artron provides art industry and art fans with professional service and experience of quality products by integrated application of IT, advanced digital science and innovative crafts and materials.

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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