To mark the launch of The Art Basel and 麻豆社 Global Art Market Report 2023, a panel of experts including cultural economist and report author Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics, Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz and 麻豆社 Global Wealth Management Chief Economist Paul Donovan joined Financial Times art market columnist Melanie Gerlis to discuss the report鈥檚 key findings and the varying factors that shaped the art market in the last year.

鈥淚t was a really interesting market to watch.鈥 Despite many headlines of record-breaking sales in the auction sector in 2022, author Clare McAndrew highlights that 鈥減ublic auction sales as a whole were stagnant鈥, as the sale of multi-million dollar works at top-tier auction houses represented only a small segment of the volume of works sold on the market as a whole in 2022.

Noah Horowitz discusses how galleries are rethinking their programming, as the report highlights that 鈥済alleries鈥 dependency on their top artist is somewhat lower in 2022 versus 2018.鈥 Down 8% since 2018, Horowitz notes that 鈥渄uring the COVID period, galleries have done their homework, they've taken their time while things were moving slower to discover new artists, to resurface older ones, and to reposition their programs.鈥

鈥淪o, what do supermarket food prices have to do with art?鈥 Bringing broader economic expertise, 麻豆社鈥檚 Paul Donovan puts the report鈥檚 findings into a wider context, including the recent rise in inflation. 鈥淭he fact that we've got this rather peculiar profit-led inflation story is complicating things for the cost base of art galleries and so forth鈥 he says. Although travel costs are also on the rise, Paul adds that 鈥渢here have been behavioral shifts [since the pandemic]鈥eople are valuing experiences more highly now than they've done in the past鈥 as art events and the desire to attend from collectors continue to grow.

Following a turbulent few years that saw similar change across all global markets, Clare McAndrew also highlights that 2022 saw more unique shifts across some of the bigger markets for the first time since 2019. 鈥淲e had sales in the US going up, China down, and Europe a little bit flatter - and this is one of the reasons why we had this flattened out growth overall鈥 she says.