The Top 10 Artists by turnover

[25/07/2005]

 

The first half of 2005 proved very eventful for the art market. After several months of high bidding (251 works breached the USD 1 million mark) and a rise in global Fine Art sales turnover of more than 5%, there has been a major change in Artprice’s Top 10 ranking of artists by revenue.

Artprice ranking of artists
TOP 10 by sales turnover (January 1st 2005 – June 30th 2005)Rank
Artist
Turnover
LotsSold
Topauction
1
Pablo PICASSO
$89,642,028
512
 $16,600,000
2
Andy WARHOL
$43,121,543
266
$11,250,000
3
Lucian FREUD
$28,523,797
9
 £3,700,000
4
Max BECKMANN
$26,561,761
45
$15,000,000
5
Constantin BRANCUSI
$24,541,431
6
$24,500,000
6
Claude MONET
$24,420,692
13
$5,900,000
7
Kees VAN DONGEN
$22,599,261
39
 £4,500,000
8
Edgar DEGAS
$21,858,525
36
 £2,200,000
9
Marc CHAGALL
$20,301,742
194
£1,200,000
10
Jean-Michel BASQUIAT
$19,766,986
36
$2,300,000

Although Pablo Picasso still ranks Number 1, his volume sales amounted to USD 89 million for the first six months, compared with USD 196 million for the same period last year. Claude Monet, who ranked Number 2 for the first half of 2004 has fallen to 6th place this year. Andy Warhol, considered once again as the most important contemporary artist, now occupies the Number 2 spot.

The Top 10 includes several new entrants — Lucian Freud (1922), Max Beckmann (1884-1950), Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) and Kees Van Dongen (1877-1968). With the exception of Max Beckmann, these artists gained places in the Top 10 ranking thanks to some major records. For example, Constantin Brancusi’s Bird in Space fetched USD 24.5 million on 4 May 2005, becoming the most expensive sculpture ever sold. Lucian Freud moved up from 54th place in the 2004 ranking to 3rd place at the end of the first half of 2005. The Artprice index for the artist also rose 26% over the first six months (+251% since 1997).

Artists that no longer feature among the Top 10 are Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Edouard Manet (1832-1883), Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Egon Schiele (1890-1918). Of the 75 Renoir paintings that appeared at auction in the first half of year, only 51 found a buyer, with the highest bid of only GBP 1.45 million compared with GBP 3.6 million last year.

For the second year running, Jean-Michel Basquiat ranks Number 10 with sales of USD 19.8 million, an increase of USD 3.7 million on 2004.