Despite market shifts, investments in top 100 blue-chip artists show resilient growth
In 2023, Artmarket.com's Artprice100© index, a carefully assembled portfolio designed to monitor the performance of investments in the artworks of the world’s top 100 blue-chip artists, experienced an uptick of 1.55 percent from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023.
Despite falling short of the annual average return of 10 percent since the year 2000, this growth indicates a sustained increase in the value of works by blue-chip artists, even amidst periods of market recalibration.
The portfolio's composition is recalibrated annually to reflect the artists' auction turnover and the liquidity of their market over the preceding five years, ensuring a strategic investment spread across different artistic periods with Modern Art taking precedence.
According to Artprice's ‘The Art Market in 2023’ report, the art market witnessed a transition from a sellers' market to a buyers' market in 2023.
Thierry Ehrmann, CEO and Founder of Artmarket.com and its Artprice department, elucidates that during such periods, “the balance of power tends to switch from the sellers to the buyers” allowing buyers to be “more demanding.”
This shift, while slowing down the high-end segment by reducing the availability of works expected to fetch over a million dollars, did not prevent a slight price increase for works by Blue-Chip artists.
Amidst a lack of major masterpieces, major auction houses pivoted to offering a broader volume of works, including those that are more accessible, more recent, or returning to auction more rapidly. Nevertheless, the popularity and value of blue-chip artists’ works continued to ascend.
Notably, the investment in works by artists such as Gerhard Richter and Jean-Michel Basquiat underwent considerable variations in their price indices, highlighting the volatile dynamics within the art market.
The detailed breakdown of the Artprice100© index as of January 1, 2023, reveals an absence of Old Masters except for Dong Qichang, a testament to the rarity of works from this period.
The share of 19th-Century artists saw an uptick, thanks in part to significant auction results for Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne from the sale of the Paul G. Allen Collection.
Modern Art constituted the largest segment of the portfolio, with artists like René Magritte and Qi Baishi exhibiting divergent market trends.
Post-War Art included five of the top 10 artists in the index, with Yayoi Kusama's global appeal underscored by her position as the 8th top-selling artist in the global art auction market and the most sought-after female artist.
Contemporary Art represented 13 percent of the initial investment, featuring Adrian Ghenie among the youngest artists in the portfolio.
The composition of the Artprice100© index reflects a comprehensive and diversified investment strategy across different creative periods, from Modern and Post-War Art to Contemporary Art, highlighting the dynamic and fluctuating nature of the art market.
