A new peak in the Swiss art market…

While 2024 was a difficult year for the global art market as a whole, Switzerland stood out as a remarkable exception. With spectacular growth of 80% and a solid 6th place in our national rankings, the Swiss market was both intriguing and inspiring last year.

Artprice’s latest Annual Report reveals several surprises, including the strong performance of the Swiss art market which widening its lead over Italy and consolidated its 6th place in our ranking of countries by their total art auction turnover. Despite an uncertain global context, art sales in Switzerland enjoyed impressive momentum, essentially driven by Modern Art masterpieces.

What works were involved? And how is Switzerland managing to forge stronger links with the international art market?

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Sections:

Plus 80% in auction turnover
Swiss sales boosted by French auctioneer Artcurial

 

Switzerland’s annual turnover rose 80%

While the major global markets posted significant declines in 2024 (-63% in China, -27% in the United States, -20% in the United Kingdom, -17% in France and -9% in Germany), Switzerland managed to buck the trend, consolidating its 6th place in the world and posting an 80% increase versus 2023.

This performance was substantially assisted by the exceptional sale of the collection belonging to Eberhard W. Kornfeld in Bern, which accounted for $67 million of the country’s annual turnover of $221 million (vs. $123 million in 2023), a total that clearly demonstrates the health of the Swiss market and its capacity to shine when the rest of the world is struggling.

Swiss art auction turnover

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Masterpieces from the Eberhard W. Kornfeld collection

The Kornfeld collection was not just impressive for its prestige signatures like Degas, Pissarro, Matisse, Seurat and several works by Alberto Giacometti, which all fetched between 5 and 8 million dollars each – but also for its provenance. Eberhard W. Kornfeld, who died in 2023 on the eve of his 100th birthday, was not only a distinguished collector, he was also a friend to lots of great artists, and he was of course a dealer, an auctioneer, a gallery owner and a publisher, who became an essential figure in the art market.

Hosted in September 2024 by the Kornfeld Auction House, the dispersal of its Eberhard W. Kornfeld collection made Bern the beating heart of the Swiss Art Market. The city alone accounted for 30% of Switzerland’s 2024 art auction turnover.

Ferdinand Hodler, the top-selling Swiss painter

However, the country’s best result of the year was in fact hammered in Zurich for a luminous painting by Ferdinand Hodler – Lake Geneva and Mont-Blanc in the early hours of the morning, March (1918) – at $7.26 million (at Koller Auctions).

Ferdinand Hodler is Switzerland’s most sought-after artist and his works have generated nearly $230 million since 2000. In 2024 alone, around forty of his works were sold for a total of $17.7 million — a spectacular total that propelled him into the Top 100 top-selling artists on the global art market, ahead of Edgar Degas and Egon Schiele!

So, if you own a work by Hodler (some are known to still be in private hands in Europe and the United States), selling in Switzerland could be a valid strategic option.

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Ferdinand HODLER (1853-1918)
Lake Geneva with Mont-Blanc in the early morning hours, March (1918)
Oil/canvas, 66 x 80.5 cm
Estimate: $4.5 – $6.8million. Sold: $7.26 million
Koller Zurich, 29 November 2024

 

Find the ranking of Switzerland’s best art auction results in 2024 in our 2024 Global Art Market Report: Download the Report for free

 

Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer, a strategic expansion

Artcurial, France’s leading homegrown art auction operator, took a new step in 2023 by acquiring Beurret Bailly Widmer Auction, since renamed Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer. This acquisition goes far beyond a simple geographic expansion. It draws a strategic axis between Switzerland and Monaco, where Artcurial also hosts a number of art sales that enjoy the advantage of being tax-free.

But beyond this ‘practical’ dimension, the operation will, above all, allow Artcurial to extend its influence throughout Switzerland. With outlets now solidly implanted in Basel, Zurich, St. Gallen and Geneva, the Beurret Bailly Widmer effectively covers French and German-speaking Switzerland. Its acquisition by Artcurial is therefore a masterstroke that not only adds a whole list of new names to its address book, it could well be used to boost the Swiss art market, attracting collectors and investors from all over the world.

The French auctioneer’s external growth should contribute to a consolidation of Switzerland’s position on the international artistic scene, while offering Artcurial a powerful lever to accelerate its European expansion.

Turnover figures for Artcurial’s different activities in 2024

• Artcurial Paris : $46.3 million, 3,790 lots sold
• Beurret Bailly Widmer Auktionen (Switzerland) : $13.6 million, 566 lots sold
• Artcurial Monaco : $4.4 million, 29 lots sold
• Artcurial Marrakech : $3.2 million, 91 lots sold
• Artcurial Toulouse : $207,025, 166 lots sold,

Lucas I CRANACH the Elder (1472-1553), Maria mit Kind und einem Engel, 1525-1530
Oil on panel, estimated 400,000 – 600,000 Swiss francs.
This work will be sold at auction at Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer on 2 April in Basel.

 

Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer surfing Art Basel

Art Basel – the Mecca of Contemporary art – has been held every year in the Swiss city of Basel since 1970, and Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer is now perfectly positioned to benefit from the Art Basel effect and the strong concentration of international collectors present in Basel during the fair. During Art Basel 2024, it organized an exhibition near the Badischer Bahnhof, offering visitors an exclusive preview of the works coming up for auction.

These included strong works like The Scars of Memory (Les Cicatrices de la mémoire) by René Magritte and Paranoid-critical loneliness (Solitude paranoïaque-critique) by Salvador Dalí, before their sale scheduled for 19 June 2024. This strategy allowed Artcurial to capitalize on the presence of an informed and passionate international audience, thus maximizing the visibility and attractiveness of its future sales. As it happens, Magritte’s work failed to sell, but Dali’s work exceeded its high estimate by half a million dollars, to reach $2.7 million.

The Swiss market, for its part, enjoys valuable international attention which can convince sellers to entrust Artcurial with exceptional Modern and Contemporary works. In the auction world, consignment is of course the key to success: finding a quality offer and bringing it to its audience is what every auctioneer strives for.

Even without this new synergy, the international reputation of Artcurial – ranked 12th in the world by fine art auction turnover with $67.8 million in 2024 – should continue to attract new foreign collectors to the Swiss market. It could also stimulate competition and encourage innovation in the auction sector in the region.

A new strategic address in Geneva

Latest news: Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer has just opened a new space in Geneva, whose inaugural exhibition is scheduled for 18 and 19 March (preceding that of Zurich). This event will preview the lots in two major sales to be held in Basel on 2 and 3 April.

The names of the announced artists are already resonating well beyond Switzerland’s borders: Alexej von Jawlensky, Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac, Egon Schiele and a masterpiece by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Enough to attract the attention of the most demanding collectors.

 

Swiss Art Auction Market – Eberhard W. Kornfeld Collection – Artcurial – Art Basel