Art mirrors luxury: NFTs are out, Warhol is back in

THE rich are living in a different economic world. You can see that from all the Dior handbags and Cartier watches they are buying – but it becomes even clearer when you look at all the art they are collecting.

Global art sales rose to US$67.8 billion in 2022, according to art economist Clare McAndrew’s latest state-of-the-industry report for Art Basel and UBS Group. That marked a 3 per cent increase from 2021, which saw a 31 per cent rebound in sales from the pandemic-induced low point in 2020.

As in the global luxury sector, it was the US market that drove the art industry last year. Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, which sold for US$195 million in New York in May, became the second-most expensive work ever to sell at auction behind Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi,which sold for US$450 million in New York in 2017.