Art Fair in Maastricht Tefaf conducted a study on the state of the art market

China beat the United States in terms of sales of works of art, putting an end to decades of American dominance in the art market. This is a historic moment, which is a measure of fundamental shifts in the global economy, reflected in the report, the art fair Tefaf, published March 16, 2012. Research Clare McAndrew (Clare McAndrew) «International art market in 2011: an overview of the art trade for 25 years", commissioned by the organizers of the art fair in Maastricht, contains some interesting statistics.

share of Chinese art market in the global art market has grown from 23%in 2010 to 30%in 2011. America, biting off a piece of 29-percent of the global market pie, got only second place. Economist Clare McAndrew, specializing in the market of fine and decorative arts, and founded the consulting firm Arts Economics, called the change of leader, "perhaps the most fundamental and important change in the last 50 years." Britain, which beat China back in 2010, remained in third place with 22 percent market share, while France is now the fourth place with a score of 6%.

Strong growth in China and the overall growth in sales of works of art, especially modern and contemporary, has led to the strengthening of art and antiques market on a global scale. In 2011, art sales rose 7%to 46.1 billion euros. This figure is 63%greater than that of the crisis in 2009, but it is inferior to the pre-crisis level of 2007 with its 48.1 billion euros. However, the market recovers impressively fast.

Key points of the report Tefaf, which, incidentally, was first translated into Chinese, as follows:

• In 2011 art market in China the first bypassed the U.S. in terms of sales of works of art and became the first in the world with a share of 30%. Based on the results of the auction and dealer sales.
• share of the U.S. in the global turnover fell by 5%and is 29%, at the while the combined share of 27 EU countries fell by 3%and 34%. Among the European leader UK ( 22%) ; in fourth place France ( 6%) .
• Branch of Chinese art and antiquities has been the fastest growing sector of the art market: in 2010 it rose by as much as 177%, and in 2011 - another 64%.
• global art market continued to recover in 2011 and grew up on 7%, to 46,1 billion Euros : it is 63%higher than in the crisis of 2009. Number of transactions in the market increased by 5%, to 36.8 million.
• driving forces that helped the market recover, were confident in the sales of Chinese auctions and sales of fine art in general (as compared to arts and crafts) .
• Sectors modernist and modern of art put together 70% from the global art market. Both sectors have exceeded their pre-crisis levels in 2007-2008.
• art market took almost ten years to rebuild after the crisis of the 1990s. And after the 2009 recession recovery took only a couple of years. This is partly explained by the increasing globalization of the art market.
• art market has more than doubled over the past 25 years since the establishment of fair Tefaf. And in the period between 1991 and 2007, scored 575%(sales grew from 10 to 66 billion dollars).

«In addition to the rapid increase of the art market in the last decade there have been and significant changes in the geography of the major markets - says Clare McAndrew. - In the next decade for the first time the art markets of developing countries will have a greater impact on the overall picture than the markets of developed countries ».

« The dominance of the Chinese art market has been growing due to the well-being, sustainable supply within the country and the investment enthusiasm of Chinese collectors. Turmoil in the economy have made the rest of the players more cautious in buying, but the instability of the Chinese people in the real estate and stock bent in the direction of investing in art ».

Whatever it was, the changes in 2012 was waiting for all regions: the Chinese market need to overcome the current over-heating and achieve a more stable, long-term growth, Europe needs to maintain its competitiveness, and America face a painful defeat in the struggle for world dominance in sales of works of art.

Prepared by Mary Onuchina, AI

Sources : artinvestment.ru

main provisions of last year's review of Clare McAndrew, "The international art market in 2010: Crisis and Recovery," read the here .