Introducing: The Artnet Intelligence Report, Spring 2020 Edition

In the art business, perhaps more than in almost any other
industry, information is power—and when it comes to the value of
artworks, good information is especially hard to come by. An
oft-repeated legend has it that Larry Gagosian rose to prominence
in part by securing invitations to collectors’ homes, memorizing
the trophies on display, and using that knowledge to generate
third-party offers high enough to literally sell the artworks off
their walls.

So it’s not entirely surprising that many of the stories in this
issue investigate how data—a lack of it, an abundance of it, or a
new, high-tech version of it—has the potential to shake the art
market’s very foundation.

To examine the dark side of information asymmetry, we spelunk
into the murky story of Inigo Philbrick, a former wunderkind
dealmaker who capitalized on the market’s opacity—specifically the
fact that buyers and sellers typically have no idea who is on the
opposite end of a deal—to allegedly swindle his clients to the tune
of tens of millions of dollars.

We also explore how artificial intelligence could rewire the art
market as a much more transparent, highly efficient industry—but
only, perhaps, if the parties who have historically hoarded
information are willing to share it for the good of the whole.

In these pages, you’ll also find an eye-opening account of how
professionals with a very specialized knowledge of one
industry—banking—are trying to break down the traditional walls of
the art world. Plus, we have a primer on three dynamic art-market
hubs in Asia that deserve a closer look, particularly as China and,
yes, Hong Kong are becoming less hospitable to Western
business.

And, as always, you’ll get an insight-packed account of the
biggest moments in the art industry over the past year, with
unparalleled data, as well as analysis to explain what it all
means. Because, as anyone active in the art world knows, you are
only as good as your most up-to-date information—and the times they
are a changin’.

Click here to download the full report.

— TABLE OF CONTENTS
—

– Marketplace
• Expert predictions for what’s ahead in 2020
• Leading collectors on what they buy (and why)
• The top 10 lots of 2019 in every major
category—explained

– Your A-to-Z Guide to A.I. in the Art Market by Tim
Schneider
Industries from transportation to entertainment have been
transformed by artificial intelligence—we explain how it could
change the way the art world does business, too.

– Is This the Greatest Contemporary-Art Swindle Ever? by
Eileen Kinsella
Inigo Philbrick allegedly conned the art industry out of tens
of millions of dollars. Here’s how he got away with it for so
long—and why it’s a symptom of a larger problem.

– The Asian Art Market Is More Than Hong Kong (or China)
by Vivienne Chow
Beyond the People’s Republic, major art markets are blossoming
across the region. We break down everything you need to know about
three of the most dynamic hubs on the rise.

– How Masters of the Universe Became Masters of the Art
World by Nate Freeman
What happens when a market that used to be helmed by patrician
connoisseurs is overrun with profit-hungry bankers from
Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan?

— KEY FINDINGS —

• A
  grand total of $17.8 billion was spent on fine art, design, and
  decorative art at auction in 2019—down 8.3 percent from
  2018. 

• Weakness at the top of the market is driving
  this slump: Total auction sales of works worth over $10 million
  dropped by 35 percent from the previous year. 
• The
  world’s three largest art markets—the US, the UK, and China—all
  contracted in 2019. But France was a major success story: the
  country’s art market grew a remarkable 49 percent last
  year. 
• For
  the first time since 2016, the gap between Sotheby’s and Christie’s
  narrowed: the rivals sold $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion worth of
  fine art respectively in 2019. 
• Ultra-contemporary art—our term for work by
  artists born after 1974—remains smaller than any other sector, but
  it is also by far the fastest-growing, with 65 percent growth
  year-on-year.
• American artists were more sought-after than
  those from any other nation at auction last year. They accounted
  for the largest share—25 percent—of the top 100 best-selling
  artists in 2019. 
• Experts say 2020 is poised to bring at least a
  modest upturn in the global auction market, as art collections
  estimated to be worth north of $700 million combined are expected
  to hit the block.

The post Introducing: The Artnet Intelligence Report, Spring
2020 Edition appeared first on artnet News.