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PARIS, Jan. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Since 2001 the situation for the French Fine
Art auction market has been critical. Prices remain stable but transaction
volumes have contracted, and French auction houses have seen their market
share diminish as a result of the success of their Anglo-Saxon counterparts.
The most closely followed market indicator, the price index, is today in
France at the same level as in January 2001. The sharp upward trend seen at
the beginning of the year gradually tailed off in the autumn. Overall, French
auction houses saw prices rise by 7.6% (versus +35% in New York). Despite this
sharp increase, France is still lagging in terms of investment returns on
artwork.
In the United States, artwork has proved a particularly lucrative
investment over the past three years. Underpinned by a loss of interest in the
stock markets, renewed US economic growth and the dollars depreciation, the
market saw prices for artwork rise by 20% in New York between July 2002 and
December 2004. In December 2005 prices were 28% higher than in summer 1990,
the height of the speculative bubble that buoyed the market.
Meanwhile, over the same period, the French market -- which was bearing
the brunt of economic uncertainties and lacklustre US demand -- failed to see
a similar rise in final auction prices. In fact the opposite was true, and
prices even trended downwards between 2002 and 2004. Average hammer prices for
artwork in France are today at 1992-levels and remain 49% below the peak of
June 1990.
Furthermore, this price stagnation is accompanied by a very low number of
sales transactions. In France, as in the rest of the world, sales volumes
remain 40% below 2000-levels. As a result, the turnover for Fine Art sold in
France was only EUR 195 million, representing 6% of the total turnover
worldwide. In 2003, following the Auction Reform Act, Frances market share
rose to 9.3%.
It is worth noting that in 2005, only 3 of the 382 works topping one
million euros changed hands in France, compared with 299 in New York. The best
result for Paris was for a Gustave Miklos bronze entitled Jeune Fille which
was knocked down at EUR 1.4 million at Le Mouel et Camard on 1 June 2005
(after a pre-sales estimation of EUR 180,000-200,000).
It was the Anglo-Saxon auction house, Christies that held the most
successful sale in France. On 12 December, its contemporary art sale sold 330
lots which generated almost EUR 4.7 million. The post-war artists were the
stars of the sale, reflected in the high bidding for Hantai (EUR 480,000),
Viera Da Silva (EUR 315,000) and Sayed Haider Raza (EUR 257,000).
But the high-end segment of the market did not perform as well as these
results suggest. In fact, the bought-in ratio was particularly high in 2005.
Of the 248 works carrying estimations of more than EUR 100,000, 48% did not
find a buyer. In New York, only 21% of lots in this price range were bought
in. In view of this lagging performance, it is difficult to imagine how the
French art market will soon catch up with the US market.
Artprice, the world leader in art market information, lists over 21
million auction prices and indices covering over 306,000 artists collected
from 2,900 international auction houses. Artprice daily serves the main
financial press titles and agencies with the art market trends. Artprice
Classifieds visible to 900,000 Artprice members for buying and selling art
works.
Artprice is listed on Eurolist by Euronext Paris: Euroclear: 7478 -
Bloomberg: PRC - Reuters: ARTF
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