Artmark auction house recorded auction art sales of EUR 5.5 million last year, which makes up for 68 percent of the local art sales, according to data from the company. The company posted EUR 1.8 million in auction sales in 2009, which made 48 percent of the market.

The Romanian market of publicly auctioned art was of EUR 8.1 million in 2010, according to data from Artmarkt and is expected to reach around EUR 10 and EUR 15 million this year. Artmark expects new auction houses to start activity in Bucharest and in other Romanian cities, like Cluj – Napoca and Oradea. The local market grew from EUR 2.6 million in 2009 to EUR 3.7 million in 2009.

A record price was paid for a painting at one of the Artmark auctions last year – EUR 175,000 for the painting Shepherdess by Nicolae Grigorescu. Artmark expects the first sale exceeding the EUR 200,000 threshold to happen in the first half of this year.

The average acquisition rate for an Artmark auction was of 80.5 percent last year. As many as 600 people took part in Artmark's duplex auction towards the end of last year, which added to the 989 online viewers of the auction, which was broadcasted live on Artmark TV.

editor@romania-insider.com