The Market Sprawls (via The Economist)

…the art markets of 2007 and 2011 are very different. Nicolai Frahm, who speculates on contemporary art, sees the market as more selective now. “Artists come in and out of fashion very fast,” he says, “making it very difficult to predict what will happen.” Today, many more artists have international careers than even a few years ago.

At Christie’s, on February 16th, 11 telephone bidders from eight countries competed to acquire Yan Pei-Ming’s painting of Mao Zedong. Francis Outred, Christie’s European head of post-war and contemporary art, explains that the shift is “part of a broader discussion about how art collectors start with their own, then go international.”

A close look at the nationalities of the artists featured in the auctions offers one explanation. The only artist from an emerging economic region in Sotheby’s sale was Ai Weiwei from China, whereas Christie’s included Adriana Varejao (Brazil), Bharti Kher (India), Almed Alsoudani (Iraq), and Yan Pei-Ming (China). A wider variety of artists invites a broader range of buyers.

J N O M I C S