Romanian art market sees growth and consolidation in first part of 2024
The first part of 2024 shows a consolidation of the Romanian art market, with growth trends in the frequency of public auctions, auction success rate, and turnover.
According to art auctioneer Artmark, the growth is visible in numbers, specifically in volume: +17% in public auctions, frequency: +7.5% in auction success rate, and turnover speed: +39.4% in private, in-store sales.
In 2024 so far, Artmark held auctions covering the entire spectrum of collecting passions through a diversity of themes, from plastic arts (classical Romanian, contemporary, and post-war Romanian art, sculpture from all times, European painting and graphics) to collectible watches & cars, designer jewelry & accessories, various decorative arts from silverware and author glassware to ceramics and author furniture, to history and sports memorabilia, collectible wines and whiskeys, and charity auctions.
With a total annual of EUR 10.23 million in public auctions (compared to the total of EUR 9.39 million in public auctions in the previous year, September 2022 – July 2023), the concluded year marks a +8.9% advance in art sales through public auction.
For the first time in Artmark's history, four auctions in a single semester were sold entirely (100% auction success rate). These include the Anniversary Watch Auction in May, two sports memorabilia auctions in June, and an art auction (the Auction of a Bucharest Gallery’s Heritage in July).
In the recent Artmark Summer Auction (June 18, 2024), Nicolae Tonitza's painting "Girl Indoors" increased from a starting price of EUR 25,000 to double the maximum estimate after a 4-minute auction, going through 19 auction steps to a final price of EUR 80,000. Works by Theodor Aman and Adrian Ghenie or Ștefan Luchian reached similar or even higher prices.
Aside from paintings, the small niche of the sculpture category in the art market shows signs of expansion. Besides the already famous stars of classical sculpture auctions – Dimitrie Paciurea, Oscan Han, Ion Jalea, or Cornel Medrea – the recent market has also started to show interest in contemporary sculpture, marking auction records of young authors.
Strictly referring to the specialized contemporary art auctions, the contemporary art auction market is visibly growing by +67 % compared to the similar semi-annual period of 2023 (from less than EUR 1 million in the first half of 2023 to EUR 1.66 million in the first half of 2024).
(Photo source: Artmark)
