How Two Companies Dominate The $67 Billion Art World

The global art market was valued at $67.4 billion in 2018, the second highest year ever. The United States, United Kingdom and China are the three largest art markets in the world. Their sales combined make up 84% of the global art market. The auction house is one of the biggest drivers of the art market. Sales at public auctions exceeded $29 billion last year. Two auction houses—Christie's and Sotheby's— compete head to head each year capturing more than 40% of global auction sales.

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How Two Companies Dominate The $67 Billion Art World

[felixf]

When you have so much money that you don't know where to store it anymore.

[ericp]

I wonder how many assassins would come after me if I stole all the art in one of their auctions

[theophendyj]

Literally 90% of the comments:”art auctions are used for money laundering”.

[stuffthings]

Imagine being so rich you have the two biggest auction companies rock paper scissors against each other. Those are some mega balls of steel.

[SN-hnzi]

All these people have really weird smiles at the ends of their sentences. Like they know it’s a lot of bs

[MoorishBrooklyn]

Shout out to the Asian guy that had them play rock, paper scissors. Priceless. Good educational video.

[Anita-mdze]

The fact that he says the buyers are coming from whatever sector of the economy are doing well says it's obvious they only use these as vehicles to move cash and dodge taxes. They aren't interested in the art. You don't have to have money to suddenly be interested in art.

[nxjxjfufc]

I swear some of these expensive art paintings look no different than goodwill paintings for $5

[DiabeticDawg]

Rock Paper Scissors is a genius marketing ploy for the individual. You know the piece is valuable and so you decide its fate on luck sparking controversy, free press coverage, etc. Very smart.

[GamerbyDesign]

"The world is generally a much richer place then it was a few years ago." I've never gotten a sense of this in my neck of the woods.

[muskreality]

I'm addicted to binge watching CNBC and Business Insider

[inigojuancarlos]

I used to work for Sotheby’s in HK and I have to say, it’s quiet snotty and had a sense of elitism when you’re in high art appraisal & auction market.

[MKMK-bjsk]

*Gotta ask my mom where she kept all my paintings what were on the fridge.. looks like I'm on my way to becoming a millionaire*

[sutats]

Two decades ago Christie's and Sotheby's were found guilty for price fixing and they're still at the top of the game today.

[ein]

Actually there is a lot of beauty and time and effort put into something and people are willing to pay a lot of money for it.

[ericcoop]

Kind of amazing that France and Italy have such a small amount of global art market share, both widely fostered and birthed multiple forms of art. And since when did the US become so artistic 😅

[pranjalvw]

Conclusion:- Its not about what you sell,
Its how you sell and to whom you sell.

[evilmanua]

it`s not an art market, it`s an asset market.

[boldbbqdorito]

My kindergarten painting could prolly make a couple 100 stacks

[Jen-joqu]

Great story here. Intriguing to hear about how art auctions have changed recently.