ART: THE SMART INVESTMENT
The collector is a relatively new character in the art market. It appeared around 1800 with the rise of the bourgeois class, along with Modernism and its new aesthetics. This is how art separated itself from the monarchies and church.
But it was until 1980, when the art market had a significant, geographical and economical, growth. In the last 25 years, the number of private collectors has quadrupled. Nowadays, you can quantify more than a half million mid and high level buyers worldwide (The Art Market 2017, Art Basel & UBS report).
The growth in personal wealth and the amazing low-interest rates (2-3%) are the main reasons that lead investors to turn at art as an investment opportunity.
Although, art can be many things before a stake, today, 80% of the collectors have found in art an alternative investment, and their purchases are driven by financial analysis
In terms of sales, the global art market has grown from 20 billion Euros in 20013 to 50 billion in 2013, reporting an increasement of 150% in only 10 years. In 2016, the sales reached 56.6 billion dollars (The Art Market 2017, Art Basel & UBS report).
Even though, the global art market is still very small: its size equals to the size of dog food market in the US (Alain Servais, Investment Banker & collector based in Brussels).
Moreover, private collectors have an inclination for paintings and sculptures, the market for pieces such as photography, videos, and installations has expanded, and right now represents 15% of the annual art sales.
In Mexico, the art market is still small, especially the contemporary art market. But with the change of the century, the interest for collecting art produced in the present has quickly expanded, where the art galleries are the ones that make most of the transactions.
The irrefutable proof of the increasing interest in contemporary art is the renovation and quickly expansion of the galleries´s network in the country. From the 35 galleries that participate in Gallery Weekend Mexico City 2017, 13 (37%) were established between the years 2005-2010, and 15 (43%), between 2012 and 2016. This guide us to conclude that the average life of the active art galleries in Mexico today, barely reaches 10 years of activity (source: GWM).
To learn more about the art market and the aspects of collecting, visit Gallery Weekend Mexico City from September 21th to 24th, 2017 and its extensive exhibitions and activities program around the work of 70 artists from 10 different countries and generations.
More information at www.galleryweekend.art/
About Gallery Weekend Mexico City
Gallery Weekend Mexico City was created in 2013 with the purpose of celebrating art by increasing the exposure of the active national art scene and its most vivid places, art galleries. GWCDMX program focuses on galleries, being aware that these exhibition spaces and their shows remain vital for artistic production, and the current discussion around art. Galleries are the places where production, exhibition, and the art market meet. Throughout its five editions, GWCDMX has expanded its number of participant galleries –from 15 on the first edition to 34 in the last one–, and equally, on the number of its attendees –from 10 thousand in 2013 to 30 thousand in 2016. Mexico City was one of the first cities to implement this exhibition format that activates and benefits from the cultural infrastructure that exists in the city.