- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
Art sales hit all-time high in 2021
Art auctions saw a record year in 2021 with $17.1 billion (15.6 billion euros) in sales as the market continued its rapid growth in Asia and recovered from its coronavirus slump, experts Artprice said Monday.
The figure marked a 60-percent increase on 2020, when sales were hit by the initial disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, and 28-percent compared with 2019, according to the firm's annual report.
"The global art market regained much of its customary dynamism, and a whole lot more as well," the report said.
It was boosted by a number of big-name auctions such as the $45-million Botticelli and $34.9-million Frida Kahlo sales in New York.
There was also the landmark moment when digital artist Beeple sold a NFT for $69 million, the third-highest figure ever paid for a living artist.
Most NFTs are sold on crypto-exchanges (Ethereum alone sold some $40 billion of them last year) that do not qualify for Artprice's monitoring of "regulated auctions".
But it still counted some 300 traditional auctions of NFTs, worth $232 million in all, putting the medium ahead of photography.
"The health crisis accelerated the art market's digitisation -- 87 percent of the 6,300 auction houses that we follow now have a back-office dealing with online sales," Artprice president Thierry Ehrmann told AFP.
Contemporary art -- counted as anything created after 1945 -- accounts for a growing share of sales, with 20 percent of the market, up from 3 percent in 2000.
China, with $5.95 billion or 35 percent of all sales, now counts the world's largest art market.
The United States, on 34 percent, was pushed into second place, though its market is still more diversified, selling more artworks at a lower average price compared with China.
South Korea has seen rapid growth -- entering the top 10 with $237 million in sales, up from $58 million before the pandemic.
The effects of Brexit and competition from Hong Kong were felt on Britain's art market, which saw sales drop 10 percent on 2019 to $1.99 billion.
"Hong Kong is increasingly asserting itself on the global chessboard and competing directly with the English capital," Artprice said.
An increasingly active market also means fewer items are being left unsold. A record-low 31 percent of items did not find a buyer in 2021, compared with traditional levels between 34 and 39 percent.
Gerhard Richter and Banksy remain the best-selling living artists -- some 1,186 Banksy artworks were sold in 2021 for a total of $206 million.
E.Paulino--PC