In its Market Notes section, Skate’s offers a deep dive into its Top 10,000 list, which tracks the 10,000 highest auction prices on record. The big news, according to its calculations: over the first eight months of this year, the value of those 10,000 works has increased from $50.66 billion to $53.85 billion, a 6 percent climb, and a third of that value comes from just 10 artists.
From the report:
The weighted average annualized investment return on the world’s [10,000] most valuable artworks has increased from 4.92% as of December 31, 2014, to 5.07% as of September 1, 2015, as measured with repeat sales included in Skate’s Top 10,000. The liquidity has also improved, with repeat sales contributing to 18.0% of Top 10,000 sales by volume as of September 1, 2015, compared to 16.6% as of December 31, 2014.
Head over to Skate’s for the names of those 10 artists, and more analysis.
Skate’s is the art business intelligence unit of ARTnews S.A.