Increased value of blue chip artists' works

The simulated portfolio put together by Artprice to evaluate the annual performance of a weighted investment in the world's 100 top-selling blue-chip artists on the global art auction market continued to grow with an overall return on investment of 1.55 % between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023.

The portfolio's yield in 2023 was lower than the annual average of 10% recorded since 2000, but it nevertheless proves that works by blue-chip artists still grow in value even during periods of art market adjustment. Lacking major masterpieces since the sale of the Paul G. Allen Collection in 2022, the major auction houses have focused on offering a greater volume of works, including works that are more accessible, more recent or, which return to auction more quickly. But, even during this shift in focus, the popularity of blue-chip artists has continued to increase.

"Artprice's latest annual report, "The Art Market in 2023" underscores the shift from a sellers' market to a buyers' market in 2023, explains thierry Ehrmann, CEO and Founder of Artmarket.com and its Artprice department. "During such periods, the balance of power tends to switch from the sellers to the buyers with the latter now being able to afford to be more demanding. But this shift has the effect of slowing the high-end segment, by reducing the availability of works likely to fetch over a million dollars. However, even in these circumstances, Artprice recorded a slight increase in prices for works by Blue-Chips artists.

Artprice100© vs. S&P 500 and STOXX Europe 50 – Base 100 in January 2000

Calculation principle of the Artprice100©

On 1 January 2023, Artprice updated its portfolio respecting the same investment strategy as in previous years. This consists of maintaining fictitious stakes in the world's 100 top-selling artists on the secondary market, with the stakes adjusted annually based on the artists' annual auction turnover and the market liquidity of their works over the previous 5-year period. The relative weight of each artist in the portfolio at the start of every year is therefore proportional to the relative turnover their works have generated over the previous five years, and this figure is then adjusted by a market liquidity factor. The exact breakdown of the portfolio as of 1 January 2023 is provided below in the section Composition of Artprice100© as of 1 January 2023.

Composition of Artprice100©: Artist and weight in the initial Artprice100© portfolio for 2023

• Pablo PICASSO (1881-1973) (Modern Art): 8.3%
• Andy WARHOL (1928-1987) (Post-War Art): 5.1%
• Claude MONET (1840-1926) (19th Century): 5.0%
• Jean-Michel BASQUIAT (1960-1988) (Contemporary Art): 3.9%
• ZAO Wou-Ki (1921-2013) (Post-War Art): 3.4%
• Gerhard RICHTER (1932-) (Post-War Art): 2.8%
• David HOCKNEY (1937-) (Post-War Art): 2.4%
• Yayoi KUSAMA (1929-) (Post-War Art): 2.1%
• René MAGRITTE (1898-1967) (Modern Art): 2.1%
• QI Baishi (1864-1957) (Modern Art): 2.0%
• Willem DE KOONING (1904-1997) (Modern Art): 1.9%
•  Vincent VAN GOGH (1853-1890) (19th Century): 1.9%
• Alberto GIACOMETTI (1901-1966) (Modern Art): 1.8%
• WU Guanzhong (1919-2010) (Modern Art): 1.8%
• Cy TWOMBLY (1928-2011) (Post-War Art): 1.6%
• FU Baoshi (1904-1965) (Modern Art): 1.5%
• Yoshitomo NARA (1959-) (Modern Art): 1.5%
• Paul CÉZANNE (1839-1906) (19th Century): 1.5%
• Alexander CALDER (1898-1976) (Modern Art): 1.4%
• Roy LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997) (Post-War Art): 1.4%
•  Marc CHAGALL (1887-1985) (Modern Art): 1.4%
• SAN Yu (1895-1966) (Modern Art): 1.3%
•  Joan MIRO (1893-1983) (Modern Art): 1.3%
• BANKSY (1974-) (Contemporary Art): 1.3%
• Joan MITCHELL (1925-1992) (Post-War Art): 1.2%
• François-Xavier LALANNE (1927-2008) (Post-War Art): 1.1%
• Amedeo MODIGLIANI (1884-1920) (Modern Art): 1.1%
• Jean DUBUFFET (1901-1985) (Modern Art): 1.0%
• Lucio FONTANA (1899-1968) (Modern Art): 1.0%
• Henri MATISSE (1869-1954) (Modern Art) : 1.0%

(Up to 30th place)

Artmarket

Artmarket and its Artprice division were founded in 1997 by Thierry Ehrmann Artmarket and its Artprice division are under the management of the Servair Group, which was founded in 1987 Artmarket is a As a world leader in the accumulation, management and utilisation of historical and current art market information through its various divisions, including Artprice, Artmarket has a databank of more than 30 million indexes and auction results, covering more than 824,000 artists. Owner of the databank, Artprice by Artmarket is the world leader in information about the art market and aims to be the leading global fine art NFT platform through a world-standard marketplace.