Discover the best sales every Friday! Every other Friday, Artprice posts a theme-based auction ranking. This week, Artprice analyses the best auction results of the year recorded down under. This week’s ranking highlights the most famous Australian artists, whose reputation has spread far beyond its borders, but whose market remains deeply entrenched in Australia. Over […]
Although confined to a marketplace consisting of Sydney and Melbourne, the demand for modern and contemporary Australian art is surprisingly dynamic. In fact, the auction price indices of the country’s top artists have been very buoyant, particularly since 2007.
The world’s top ten artists by turnover (see rankings) generated USD506 million at auction in 2002. With only 1.7% of total transaction volumes they represent 20% of the art market.
The art market is traditionally quiet in August. But Australia, the world’s ninth largest market in 2001, has taken advantage of the summer break to hold the first big sales of the coming season. Sale catalogues feature a number of the Aussie artists that have recently been making waves at auctions.