Global art sales 'declined 12% last year'

LONDON: Sales in the international art market declined 12% in 2024, according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, published yesterday. The annual report, seen as the most reliable indicator of the art market's size and health, said that sales had fallen for the second year in a row.

- SCOTT REYBURN

"Decline in value was driven by cooling at the top end," says the report, which describes 2024 as "a year of continuing geopolitical tension, economic volatility and rising interest rates. Auctions sales of single works that fetched more than $10 million fell by 39%, the report says, and galleries with a turnover of more than $10 million saw sales fall 9%.

"People were more risk averse," said Clare McAndrew, the economist who wrote the report, in an interview. "On the supply side, people were waiting to see how things panned out and held on. That impacted what came on to the market."

"Buyers were looking at this uncertain, volatile picture, and wanted to put more into something that was more liquid, or something that gave them income," Ms McAndrew said.

The report — which is the most widely cited survey of activity in the notoriously opaque international art market — estimates the overall value of global art sales in 2024 at $57.5 billion, based on publicly available data from auction houses and survey responses from some 1,600 dealers.

OBSTACLES TO GROWTH