Art market summary of 2021 – a series of records

2021 was a landmark year for the international and Polish art market. For the first time in history, as many as 3 works (in the space of just two months) have reached an amount of more than 10 million zloty. Global turnover of contemporary art was $2.7bn, with over 100,000 in just one year works have changed ownership – a result ten times greater than 20 years ago. 2021 also highlighted the fact that the value of works by contemporary artists is increasing more and more intensively. According to DESA – in 2021, turnover in the Contemporary Art segment increased by 68% compared to last year, while Ancient Art (although it ranks second) recorded an increase of only 6.7%.

Growing popularity of young art on the national art market

Young art is defined as works by as yet unpromoted authors, whose asking prices usually do not exceed PLN 1,000. According to OneBid, the average price of such a work in 2021 was PLN 1,300, which means that it increased by 6% compared to last year, while compared to 2019 and 2018 levels, it increased by 15% and 34% respectively. In addition, more than 60% of the works sold at young art auctions were acquired through online bidding, which experts point to as one of the most important trends of both the past and coming year.

Key trends

The report for last year clearly shows the increasing value of works by representatives of contemporary art. In addition, online auctions are gaining in popularity. It turns out that collecting works by young artists can prove to be an excellent capital investment. The 3U10 Investment Art Gallery, which specialises in online auctions, helps in the search for promising artists.

We already know which art sectors offer the greatest opportunities for profit. Why, then, invest your capital in works of art in particular?

Buying the work of an emerging artist not only ensures that the investor maintains its value at a constant level, but is likely to generate a real profit as the artist becomes more recognisable and his or her work more highly valued. If, in addition, we decide to purchase a work we like, the time between the purchase and the sale of the work will be made more pleasant by the pleasure of interacting with a particular work. As Jan Bialostocki said, ‘there is thus something in works of art that makes them not age like objects whose meaning is exhausted in their utilitarian function’.

Here are some of the advantages of investing in artworks:

• Investment in art has historically yielded attractive returns, unlike securities and passive income (e.g. annuities).
• Investors with works of art in their portfolio reduce their risk and historically achieve significantly better performance on an annual basis.
• Investments in art provide a solid hedge against inflation and provide returns that significantly exceed increases in global consumer price indices.
• Art is a real asset class and a growing investment market.
• The art market is opaque and largely unregulated, thus providing those with more than a passing knowledge of how it works access to a range of investment opportunities and arbitrage trading opportunities.
• Investments in works of art have a low correlation to traditional investment markets such as equities or annuities, thus providing an important opportunity to diversify an investment portfolio.

Interested in investing in art?

The 3u10 Investment Art Gallery selects the most promising young artists and offers investors works whose value can increase by as much as more than 50% per year with a short investment horizon!

We specialise in online auctions based on the OneBid platform. We promote artists, we care about increasing recognition and a constant, high increase in the value of the works we offer, also after the sale.

By working with us, you can be sure that you are investing your capital in the right place and your works of art are taken care of by a committed team. Detailed information is available on our website:3u10.pl. Feel free to contact us at galeria@3u10.pl or +48 500 419 251.

The text is based on:

Summary data for 2021. Source: auction houses Desa Unicum, Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Phillips, OneBid platform

The Contemporary Art Market Raport 2021 – Artprice.com

2021 Dapp Industry Report – DappRadar.com