Has the way art auctions operate changed for the foreseeable future? Head of Commercial Litigation and Civil Fraud, Jonathan Tickner provides some insights
Art sales in 2018 recorded a high of $6billion (according to UBS’ Art Market Report 2019), but only 4 per cent of collectors had spent $1million or higher when purchasing a piece of artwork online. Moving forward to March 2020 when galleries, auction houses and art fairs closed their doors, the art world paused for a moment, but it was not to be defeated. Technological innovation came to the fore to keep the wheels turning.
In the first half of 2020, online sales had risen to 37 per cent of total sales globally and of these sales, 29 per cent were new to online buying. Insights were gathered from 360 high net worth collectors across three different markets: the US, the UK and Hong Kong SAR, and it found that the value of spending was at a relatively high level across the three markets: a majority (56%) of collectors had spent over $100,000 in the first half of 2020, including 16% spending over $1 million.
Head of Commercial Litigation and Civil Fraud, Jonathan Tickner provides some comments to those looking at getting involved in the online art auction arena.