The global art market performed at record levels in 2021, with billions of dollars being paid for works by impressionist, postwar and contemporary artists, and much of it bought by people whose wealth comes from cryptocurrencies or other technologies.<\/p>\n
More than $2.6bn (\u00a32bn)<\/a> of art was sold in two weeks by leading auction houses in New York in November. Four works by Vincent van Gogh sold for $161m, including $71.4m paid for Wooden Huts Among Olive Trees and Cypress Trees.<\/p>\n In May, Jean-Michel Basquiat\u2019s 1983 2-metre-tall painting In This Case became 2021\u2019s single most expensive painting to change hands when it sold for $93m. The sale in November of 35 works from the Macklowe Collection \u2013 by Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, among others \u2013 totalled more than $676m. Landscape by Nicolas Party went for $3.2m, doubling the Swiss artist\u2019s previous record.<\/p>\n \u201cThe art market is certainly frothy. And I think the audience for art is larger than it\u2019s ever been. We\u2019re seeing record levels in the 277-year history of our company,\u201d said Charles Stewart, the chief executive officer of auction house Sotheby\u2019s.<\/p>\n Art market experts say demand that was pent up in 2020 by the global Covid pandemic has released at the same time as sought-after artworks are being put up for sale. \u201cThere has been an extraordinarily high level of quality material coming to the market and that has drawn the attention of buyers,\u201d said Stewart.<\/p>\n It is not only paintings that are commanding enormous sums. Last month, the Hamilton Aphrodite, a Roman sculpture dating back to the first or second century AD, established a new world record for an ancient marble sculpture when it sold<\/a> in New York for almost $25m, smashing its pre-sale estimate of $2m-$3m.<\/p>\n Luxury auctions at Sotheby\u2019s \u2013 including streetwear and skateboard decks as well as jewellery, watches, handbags, wines and whiskey \u2013 totalled more than $1bn for the first time in 2021.<\/p>\n And a non-fungible token (NFT) of Everydays: the First 5,000 Days by Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, sold for a record $69m in March<\/a>, making him \u201camong the top three most valuable living artists\u201d, according to Christie\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s true that the market is performing at record levels, and certainly outperforming most people\u2019s expectations,\u201d said Katharine Arnold, the head of postwar and contemporary art at Christie\u2019s.<\/p>\n However, the market for old masters was less buoyant, with sales at auctions last month down almost 20%<\/a> on comparable sales two years ago.<\/p>\n According to the 2021 Contemporary Art Market Report, $2.7bn worth of contemporary art was sold at auction in the 12 months to June, representing a \u201cstronger, more diverse and denser market than ever before\u201d.<\/p>\n Experts attribute the booming market to at least three factors, which may overlap: young \u201ccrypto-driven\u201d buyers; the growth in the Asian market; and the belief that art is a good investment at a time of economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n People who have made fortunes from cryptocurrencies and other technologies \u201care now participating at very high levels\u201d, said Stewart. \u201cThey are young and they are global.\u201d<\/p>\n In November, Sotheby\u2019s accepted live bids in the ether cryptocurrency<\/a> \u2013 favoured by the digital art and NFT community \u2013 for the first time in the sale of two works by Banksy, Trolley Hunters and Love Is in the Air. They sold for $6.7m and $8m<\/a> respectively.<\/p>\n Cryptocurrency payments had become \u201ca viable alternative to fiat currency\u201d, said Arnold.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/d197766ea84dcf3e4607696c2d4b2183fb8a3206\/0_153_2133_2667\/master\/2133.jpg?width=300&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=efe2e4474b35e0054d05ddc7e9477796\")
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