📈Market opportunity
$2.7 billion worth of Contemporary works changed hands at auction over the 2020/21 exercise, an incredible figure considering the negative impact of the global health crisis. The recovery is all the more robust for being based on an unprecedented volume of transactions with more than 100,000 works sold by just over 34,600 artists. These figures are all new records!
Total sales of the online art and antiques market doubled in 2020 compared to the previous year. Overall, global online art and antiques sales amounted to 12.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, rising from six billion U.S. dollars in 2019.
2020/ 2021 were undoubtedly a turning point for the online art market. Auction houses and art fairs boosted their digital presence, relying on formats such as Online Viewing Rooms (OVRs) - letting art collectors and enthusiasts experience 3D digital reproductions of artworks – as well as streaming auctions and events. During ONE, a global online auction organized by Christie’s, a Roy Lichtenstein’s painting was sold for more than 46 million U.S. dollars, making it the most expensive lot sold by Christie’s.
2021 was an important year for online art sales, with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto art hitting the news when a digital collage by American artist Beeple was sold in an online-only auction by Christie’s for 69.3 million U.S. dollars.
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