DALMI-HAM-F2017-09

Sotheby’s New York City and Hong Kong: An Analysis of Contemporary Art Markets

by Evan Brazinski, Katherine Ahn, Mikaela Li & Jared Wong (2017)

Many art scholars argue that art markets are international and interconnected in such a way that there is a diminishing difference between the types of works sold and consumer buying patterns. However, we wanted to explore the veracity of these claims. This research looks into Sotheby’s data from its New York and Hong Kong houses from 2010-2016. The data is focused on all contemporary art, whether that be standard paintings, sculptures, or ink art, to ensure a comprehensive analysis of this genre. Through scraping the data publicly available, many trends were able to be uncovered. Firstly, the value of the art sales between the two markets provided telling trends that revealed a decline in the number of sales (and later, the value of each lot) for New York while Hong Kong was able to remain buoyant. Data from the 2017 TEFAF Art Market Report argues that the drop in New York’s sales can be attributed to a growth in private and online. Economic indices also seem to have no correlation with sales. While provenance would in theory raise the price, in reality it made no difference for buyers. Next, consumer trends from both market were then pulled from the data. The New York and Hong Kong consumer appear to be two very different people. New York collectors are taking less risks and focusing more on non-figurative art while Hong Kong collectors prefer patriotic themes and auspicious icons. While the value of Hong Kong’s art market is beginning to match New York’s there are significant differences that separate each market and despite the ideal of globalization, these houses cater to a very localized market.

Keywords: 
Art Markets, Sotheby’s, Global vs Local Markets, Hong Kong, New York 

JEL Classification:
Z1

 

 

 

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