Who won and who lost in the art market churning?

The art market has apparently recovered and regained its momentum in the first half: 71% jump in revenue from Fine Art auctions alone! This market fact has been quickly grasped by the top auction houses now predicting annual growth in close to 3 figures in order to assuage a still slightly hesitant market.

In line with the current market trend, Sotheby's and Christie's have posted impressive first-half revenue figures - up 140% and 67% respectively versus their 1H 2009 Fine Art revenue. In today’s dynamic market context, the figures appear perfectly natural. However, when compared to their previous growth benchmarks, the picture may not look that rosy.

For instance, the latest combined revenue figure for the auction houses is almost 25% lower than 2007 1H and almost 20% below the combined figure for 2008. A news report by Artprice elaborates:

“Between 2002 and 2008, the Christie's and Sotheby's duo never left more than 30% of the Fine Art auction market to their competitors. Since July 2008, this figure has been rising and in 2H 2009 the combined market share of the competitors amounted to 46% of global auction revenue. While the Chinese auction houses account for most of this increase, the other Western auctioneers have not managed to take advantage of the gradual dilution of the duopoly’s market hegemony and the emergence of a highly globalised art market.

In the second half of this year, it is quite possible that the two global auction giants(Sotheby's and Christie's) will re-affirm their domination. This is because their fine art revenue in first half of the year was much better than their combined 2009 total. But if they manage to, it will be against what now seems like a well-defined global trend. On the other hand, Phillips de Pury et is in constant decline, behind the Chin’s Poly and China Guardian.

Phillips, was acquired by Bernard Arnaud between 1999 and 2003 apparently to compete with Christie's has failed to generate more than even 4% of the global art market share since 2001-02. Their aggressive and seductive strategy does not seem to have yield. Simultaneously, the French auction companies have lost market share. Artcurial is in ninth position behind Dorotheum and a long way behind the English and Chinese houses. Apparently, China is the biggest winner from the present global art market crisis.