in 2009 was, quite frankly, not very easy for the global auction market. Outstanding sales in the upper segment began towards the end of the year, and before that everything was much more modest. Annual revenues from transactions with the works of such heavyweights as Pablo Picasso (Pablo Picasso), Andy Warhol (Andy Warhol), Alberto Giacometti (Alberto Giacometti), Edgar Degas (Edgar Degas) and Claude Monet (Claude Monet) fell compared with 2008 -- m at 55-77%.

Experts note that Chinese art has suffered from the crisis is less than the west. For example, last year in the top three market leaders for the first time got an artist from the Middle Kingdom - Baixo Qi (Qi Baishi). He ranked third in the list. And the first two lines got all the famous auction giants.

1. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) - 121 million dollars

In the first place, as in 2008 , was Picasso. He did not stop even if its annual sales of its products fell by 54%. For ten years (from 1998 to 2008) prices for works by Picasso have increased by 96%, and last year titanium modernism dropped 15%. Fell as the number of works emerging from the open bidding mark in $ 1 million (in 2008 these works were 39, in 2009 - 15). The most expensive painting of the artist, gone under the hammer last year, became a musketeer with a pipe ", whose proposed $ 13 million ( Christie's, May 6 ). And the most serious setback was the failure of the cloth "Musical instruments on the table", which was exhibited at the the February auction of Yves Saint Laurent (Yves Saint-Laurent) and Pierre Berge (Pierre Bergé) . The painting, which the estimate is 25-30 million euros (31-39 million dollars), was to be the most expensive cubist work in history. But fate, as we have seen, had decided otherwise.

number of unsold works by Picasso in 2009 was 30%. It is expected that in the new year this figure will decrease. However, late last year at the tender yet appeared works with inflated estimate: example - "Head of a Woman» ( Christie's, November 3 ), estimated at 7-10 million dollars. This picture, like "Musical instruments on the table, no one bought.

2. Andy Warhol (1928-1987) - 106 million dollars

Last year, sales of Warhol dropped by 55%, and the percentage of work did not find a buyer, has reached 33. Of course, the 106 million dollars - a fantastic result, none of this does not argue, but if we recall that in 2007 the work of King of pop art brought in a total of as much 422 million ... He, incidentally, took off his pedestal by Picasso and took first place the rating on the auction turnover. In the period from 1998 to 2008, prices for his work increased by 585%. May 16, 2007 has been set a price record for Warhol's work: "green car accident (Green burning car I)» brought the entire $ 64 million (excluding commission). In 2009 broke the 13 million threshold works of the artist (in 2008 - 43). But last year, boasts a remarkable price: 39 million for the painting "200 dollar bills" . This is the largest amount paid in 2009 for the work of postwar art. None of these results are not waiting for: specialists of the auction house (Sotheby's) evaluated the work of 8.12 million. Exactly twenty-three years before these trades, November 11, 1986, painting at Sotheby's went for 350 thousand. "200 dollar bills" took second place in the list of the most expensive works of the artist.

This is not the only success of the Warhol in 2009. In May, his portrait of Yves Saint Laurent became the top lot of the Paris contemporary art auction Christie's. Art dealer from Asia bought the work for 620 thousand euros (about 870 thousand dollars). In addition, the artist's works have brought the largest amount in the September auction of contemporary art in New York: September 23, "Flower" has brought at Christie's 895 thousand a day later "can of soup Campbell» was sold at Sotheby's for 310 thousand.

3. Qi Baixo (1864-1957) - 70 million

Elegant lucid compositions of the Chinese painter and calligrapher Qi Baixo served as a source of inspiration for many avant-garde artists and thinkers. Same Pablo Picasso regarded him as the greatest artist of the East and even stated that he would never dare to go to China, fearing they had met with Chi Baixo. Climb to the top of the master of the auction market went hand in hand with the rapid growth of the Chinese art market. The success of Chi - is "purely Chinese history", in the number of characters that includes neither the British nor American, nor French auction houses. All of his records were set in Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai (China's equivalent of New York, London and Paris).

Qi Baixo - the only artist in our list, the number of sold products which in 2009 increased (by as much as 73%!). Annual sales volume increased by 240%, and the price index - at 29%. November 22 at the Beijing Poly International tenders published a series of drawings of Qi under the name "Flowers and insects, which went for $ 85 million yuan (12.47 million dollars). Qi was the author of the most expensive work among contemporary Chinese artists, surpassing such well-known painters, as Mintszyun Yue (Yue Minjun), Ifey Chen (Chen Yifei) and Zhang Xiaogang (Zhang Xiaogang). On the same day has been broken yet another record: a scroll titled "Eighteen Arhat", made by the Chinese old master U Binh (Wu Bin), offered 22.1 million dollars. The work exceeded the preliminary estimate of five times.

article prepared by Julia Maksimova, AI

Sources: artprice.com , artinvestment.ru

P. S. The site ARTinvestment.RU can also read:
Results-2009: What a year - so is the arrival of
Figure Raphael became the most expensive piece of art in 2009