According to an annual survey published by Art Basel and UBS on Tuesday, the global art trade generated $67.8 billion in sales in 2022, marking a 3 percent increase from the previous year’s $61.5 billion and 6 percent higher than the pre-pandemic figure of $64 billion in 2019. The survey was conducted by cultural economist Clare McAndrew, who has been writing the report for over a decade. She surveyed several hundred international galleries and 2,700 high-net-worth art collectors with assets above $1 million in the US, the UK, Asia, and Europe.
The report’s findings described the 2022 picture for dealers, auction houses, and others in the trade as one of “muted growth,” even though the overall sales figure for this year was higher than the market’s pre-pandemic level. The survey found that the US remained the largest national market, occupying 45 percent of the total value share, up 2 percent from last year. In second and third place were the UK and China, accounting for 18 and 17 percent of sales, respectively. This year saw the UK replace China as the second-largest market hub, which fell by 3 percent in market share from 2021. The US saw sales increase by 8 percent, to around $30.2 billion, in 2022, while sales in the UK increased by 5 percent, reaching $11.9 billion. For the market in China, numbers were down significantly as prolonged lockdown policies stalled business, with sales declining by 14 percent to $11.2 billion in 2021.
McAndrew described some of the report’s findings as a “mixed bag” of financial performances across various parts of the business. However, the vendors taking part in seven-figure art sales are benefiting from increased concentrations in billionaire wealth. There is a part of the business where the number of sales of works priced over $1 million has been doing much better than everything below that. McAndrew described that finding as an “extreme” part of a longer-term trend that’s seen bigger commercial players dominating smaller peers.
Gallery sales reached $37.2 billion in 2022, marking a 7 percent increase from 2021. Surveys of the dealer community found that larger galleries (ones that have an annual $10 million turnover) saw a 19 percent increase in their average sale figures in the last year. Meanwhile, smaller galleries struggled, with rising operating and logistical costs for dealers and collectors putting increased pressure on deal-making, where discounts were a growing request. Gallerists with annual sales of $250,000 or less saw a 3% drop in sales in 2022. For mid-to-small-sized dealers, the bulk of sales made to new buyers also fell in 2022, the report found.
Meanwhile, public auction sales reached $30.6 billion, down 2 percent from 2021, but still 11% higher than the pre-pandemic 2019 level. Private sales at auction houses generated $3.8 billion, down from the $4.1 billion reported in 2021. Despite the drop, the market continues to be top-heavy, with the high-end of the trade faring well even when economic forces present hurdles. At auction houses, the number of sales of artworks with price tags over $10 million rose by 12%, while artworks at lower-value tiers saw those volumes drop between 2022 and 2021.
NFTs saw the market’s starkest decline in the last year. Since the boom in 2021, many collectors appear to be shifting focus away from art-related NFT sales. NFT sales via online platforms accounted for sales of close to $1.5 billion