Main artists — who are they?
ARTinvestment.RU   28 февраля 2020

The names of these people we see in the news, their tastes are oriented the heads of the major auction houses, their requests shape what we consider the most investment-привлекательным, popular and successful in the art world

it is No secret that the main man in any kind of market relations is conditional client — is the one who creates demand, which is defined under the proposal. The relationship of supply and demand, if to simplify and omit other processes and shapes the market. The art market is concerned in the first place. Historically, for him, the figure of the customer, patron, buyer and ultimately a collector of art is almost more important than the figures of the contractor, the author of the artwork. History is replete with examples of how talented the artists were hardly known during his lifetime, then for many years have faded into obscurity because he's not met the collector, and was re - "discovered" decades and even centuries later.

It is therefore important to understand what motives drive the people who define the contemporary art-рынок. To understand this issue and called one of the most prestigious annual lists of collectors Artnews Top 200, for 30 years, leading his chronicle of the main collectors of the world. So, who is this average collector 2019 and, given the conservatism of this list, and 2020-го year too?

With a probability of over 50% is a white male in a very Mature age. In the list of 200 major collectors men are in the majority — 91 position. Another 89 places collections owned by families or couples (which is also bound to have men) and only 20 of the positions occupied by the collection, which owned women. And if this number — 10% 200 — today seems small, you should refer to the lists of previous years: 5 years ago, for example, the number of women-коллекционеров was almost halved: 12 out of 200.

as to the origin, our average collector living in the United States: that it is based almost half — 89 main collectors of the world. In second place — Europe. If you count the number of collections, based in its continental part, this figure will exceed 20 % of the total global number of items in the list. By the way, the number of collectors-европейцев depends greatly on what we consider Europe. On the mainland they will be 41, 5 — in Russia (specifically, Moscow), and 13 — in London. The third most frequent place whence are derived the major collections of the world, — Asia. Compared with the 2014 year in the list of collectors in this region have grown almost in 2,5 times — from 12 to 29 positions. By the way, in addition to the rapid increase of its presence on the global art-сцене, collectors from Asia differ with their age: according to the latest Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, 39% of collectors in Hong Kong belong to a generation of Millennials, that is people under the age of 40 years. Thus, the collection of the United States, Europe and Asia is 177 positions from 200 — almost 90 %. The remaining places were distributed between representatives of Arab countries (UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia), Africa (South Africa), India and Australia.

What do all these people, you can learn more by examining the lists Forbes or Bloomberg, but to summarize, among the main sources of income of the owners of the world's major collections are referred to as investment, real estate transactions,the management of financial assets and securities, banking, publishing and, of course, inheritance. Frequently, a single collector or family that owns the collection, has several of the above sources of income, so to calculate the percentage superiority of the heirs of, say, investors almost impossible. But you can allocate a new, yet very small, but has great potential, a layer of the owners of the collections: the people of the entertainment industry. High-profile purchase of actors and Actresses, singers and TV-шоу (here we can recall the famous Oprah Winfrey and buy the works of Gustav Klimt) that appear in the headlines. However, among the owners of the largest collections of their units so far. One of the first signs show-бизнеса in the list of Artnews's Top 200 can be called a married couple: American music producer and artist, known by his stage name Swizz Beatz and singer Alicia Keyes.

Another complex for a simple answer to the question: what exactly is gather all these people and a collector of what the art direction will be our average collector world level. Most of the interest of our collector will be focused on modern, post-war art or art of modernism. A little less — impressionism and other art of the XIX century. And the very unity in our time collecting old masters. Best of all, however, this trend can be seen in the graphs of annual turnover of the art in different directions — e.g., in charts portal Artprice.

And what about Russia?

Despite the fact that our local art-рынок while difficult to attribute to the world's leading markets, the presence of Russian collectors in the global art-сцене more than noticeable.

In-первых, top-200 main collectors of the world is at once five representatives of Russia. Is a collector of modern Russian art Kantor, the founder of V-A-C Foundation Leonid Michelson, the former owner of the "Savior of the world" Dmitry Rybolovlev, one of the founders of the Museum of modern art "Garage" Roman Abramovich and of course Dasha Zhukova standing together with Abramovich at the origins of the "Garage" and one of the first investors portal Artsy.

In-вторых, all our collectors are the real "long-livers" of this list and its permanent members at least in the last five years.

In-третьих, they're the people, by actions and projects of which the whole world is watching the Russian approach to collecting, followed by — are starting to get interested in Russian art.

collectors and collecting can be treated by-разному. However, it is impossible not to admit that a kind of conservatism of the list of the Top-200 in our time of permanent shocks has a certain appeal and is one of the consequences of sustainability art-рынка. At the same time, this stability contributes to the emergence of new collectors who are quietly, but confidently go in the ratings of the art market.

Maria Kuznetsova, AI