Artprice Top 5

[06/09/2004]

 

Each artist makes his/her own, large or small, contribution to the total market. And ranking them by auction turnover gives a good indication of the markets conditions, preferences and trends. Each year Artprice ranks artists by this criterion.

Artprice ranking of artists (July 1st 2003 – June 30th 2004)
Top 5RankArtistTurnover (€ Million)Lots soldTop hammer price1Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973)1871063USD 93 000 000 : Garçon à la pipe (1905), sold by Sotheby’s, New-York (05/05/2004) 2Claude MONET (1840-1926)5222USD 15 000 000 : Le bassin aux nymphéas (c.1917-1919), sold by Sotheby’s, New-York (05/06/2004)3Andy WARHOL (1928-1987)46457USD 6 200 000 : Self Portrait (1967), sold by Christie’s, New-York (05/11/2004 )4Vincent VAN GOGH (1853-1890)3511USD 10 500 000 : L’allée des Alyscamps (1888), sold by Christie’s, New-York (11/04/2003 )5Amedeo MODIGLIANI (1884-1920)3420USD 24 000 000 : Nu couché, sur le côté gauche (1917), sold by Christie’s, New-York (11/04/2003 )

Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973)

Pablo PICASSO has been comfortably anchored in the top spot for more than 10 years. Picasso alone turns over US$225 million on the world’s auction floors annually. Every year more than 1,000 Picasso works change hands, two thirds being prints. With 7.3% of all fine art sales his supremacy is unchallenged. He is market leader for paintings, prints and ceramics, and number two in drawings. Picasso also holds the new record for a work of art since May 5, 2004. After just seven minutes’ bidding taken by auctioneer Tobias Meyer, Pablo PICASSO’s “le Garcon a la Pipe” succeeded in toppling Vincent Van Gogh’s “le Portrait du Docteur Gachet”. It is now a modernist and not an impressionist canvas that tops the list of highest-grossing artworks

Claude MONET (1840-1926)

Pablo Picasso comes first in the Artprice auction turnover ranking with 1,063 lots, but Claude Monet comes second with only 22 lots. His auction turnover is 3.6 times lower than the art market’s leader, with USD 62 million. Since 2002, Monet remains first in the Artprice impressionist ranking. But his market is drying up and he could decrease in the years to come. Twice as less of Monet’s artworks were sold in 2003 than in 1999. This decrease could be faster as his prices have been falling for the past 2 years (-45%). Apart from Pissaro, millionaire collectors are growing less interested in Impressionists. However as long as one or two major artworks on the “nymphea” theme are put at auctions in New York, Monet will always appear in the top 10.

Andy WARHOL (1928-1987)

As shown by the prices fetched by New York pop artist Andy Warhol, pop art and dollar bills go hand in hand. At an auction held by Sotheby’s New York in 1998, an “Orange Marilyn” sold for over USD 15,7 million, consolidating the price levels for this artist, already riding high as a veritable star of the pop art world, and triggering rises in those of his peers. This work had originally been sold by Leo Castelli straight out of the studio for just USD2,500. His price level rose 80% in 1998. Andy Warhol’s use of multiple reproduction processes means there is no shortage of his production on the secondary market, and he now ranks fourth by number of transactions and third in auction turnover. In other words, scarcity is not always the key factor determining the price of a work of art. Artists’ price levels are in fact often boosted by a combination of high supply and demand, and abundant production often bears witness to an artist’s popularity.

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

Van Gogh’s creative life was short. But there are still nearly 870 canvases in his catalogue raisonne. After his death fame came quickly and massively. His distinctive palate and the tragedy of his short life helped. In 1900 his paintings were selling for around 1000 francs. Auctions kept the legend alive. In the 1980s the market was rocked by the record prices bid for his landmark works. The art market was first shaken in March 1987 when Christie’s sold Sunflowers for USD 39.9 million, an astonishing price. In the last gasp of the speculative bubble the absolute record for a work of art was set on May 15, 1990 when Ryoei Saito paid USD 75 million for Portrait of Doctor Gachet. The market was originally French, but has gradually shifted to the UK and US. Today, apart from a few drawings or prints, sales are nearly all in London or New York.

Amedeo MODIGLIANI (1884-1920)

With the sale at Christie’s on 4 November 2003 of “Nu couche, sur le cote gauche” (1917) for USD 24 million, setting a new record price for the artist, Amedeo Modigliani moved up 15 places in Artprice’s ranking by total sales. However, as Modigliani works seldom come up for sale, it is unlikely that his position in the ranking will get any better. Amedeo Modigliani died in his late thirties and no more than 400 oil paintings have been attributed to his hand. His drawings usually sell for between EUR 10,000 and EUR 100,000. This makes for very broad fluctuations in annual sales volumes of Modigliani’s works depending essentially on the quality of the lots going to auction in any given year.