Warhol, Picasso And Richter Top-Selling Artists For 2012
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Andy Warhol's Statue of Liberty
Oftentimes when people write about art, they use poetic language. But, as we know, art is serious biz, too, and is tracked just like the stock market.
On its website, Artnet offers collectors the opportunity to, “benchmark the performance of art against the S&P 500, Dow Jones, or other alternative assets such as gold.” And according to Artnet, Pablo Picasso was one of the top selling artists of 2012 and, “Picasso’s demand has remained consistently high in recent years, with an overall sell-through rate in 2012 above 75%” And though Picasso is no longer around to enjoy his stock going up, note that it is as if the famous artist were a brand, just like Apple or Coca-Cola.
Andy Warhol, was the number one selling artist, just above Picasso. Behind those two heavy hitters is German visual artist, Gerhard Richter whose piece,Abstraktes Bild, set an auction record price for a painting by a living artist at 34 million dollars. Richter was followed by the likes of Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, and Joan Miró.
Click on the image below for a full-sized chart of Artnet’s Top 10:
