i.p. news

      The Financial Times outlines this week that there is still huge demand for art despite the downturn and, as they put it “the sky’s the limit for top quality works which are “properly priced and fresh to the market”. Despite a fall in its result Sotheby’s announced a net profit of $73.6. The FT mentions ‘citizens of the world’ / billionaires who drive the sales and cannot be described as belonging to any single country, continually travelling between their homes in Switzerland, the US, France and Monaco.
    
     The article also focuses on the emergence of new art markets. One such market is Morocco where the French fair organizer ArtParis has joined forces with a local art dealer Hicham Daoudi to create an art fair there (to be held next October). ArtParis also want to create a fair in Singapore with Christie’s support.
    
     The FT reminds us that quantifying the art market is extremely difficult because most transactions go through art dealers and never end up on the open art market/auctions. Dr. Clare McAndrew’s report on ‘The International Art Market 2007-2009’ (which can be found HERE) gives the estimate size of the art market (€31.3bn). The US represents 30% of this market, the UK 30% and China 14%.
    
     The FT: HERE