2010-2022 Report: 12 years of market evolution

87 pages - A4 PDF publication

English

Between 2010 and 2021, non-European art sales reached $971.8m. More importantly, global turnover has more than doubled over the past twelve years, rising from $61m in 2010 to $127.5m in 2021, the best year ever for the tribal art market. Several factors explain this spectacular recovery. While the economic world was still groggy from a year of pandemic crisis that brought international trade to an unprecedented halt, 2020 was, unsurprisingly, the worst year for the tribal art market with a global result of $37.3m (compared to $58.6 in 2019 and $77.8m in 2018). This was an honourable result, given the exceptional circumstances in which transactions that year were off the radar during a confined first half of the year.

”When we published our first report on tribal art in 2015, our aim was to identify how, over a period of fifteen years, this niche market had structured itself in the face of the growth of public auctions and an unprecedented surge in prices. Since then, there have been many structural changes. It seemed important to us to study their impact when the multiplication of digital platforms allows for increasing transparency and accessibility of information, but when the stakes of this still relatively unknown market need to be deciphered with hindsight.“

— Aurélien Cuenot, Director of Artkhade

”In 2015, we were proud to present our report on 15 years of evolution of the tribal art market, born from the collaboration between the specialised database Artkhade and the experts of AMA, the very first one ever made in this field. Seven years later, it is with great pleasure that we publish a new edition, detailing the key facts and figures that have animated this sector over the 2010-2021 period. Although non-European art is still a niche market, it has undergone the same changes and revolutions as other auction house specialities: the emergence of a new generation of collectors, the change in their tastes and buying habits — the famous cross-collecting —, the digital wave, the prestige of collector’s sales, and, of course, the impact of the health crisis on all uses and practices.”

— Pierre Naquin, Director of AMA

Contents

  • Undergoing sociological change (New collectors and ways of collecting)

  • Overview of auctioneers ((Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams, Native, Dorotheum, Zemanek, Binoche et Giquello, etc…)

  • Africa, always confirmation of Oceania (Evolution of average prices, of the number of lots …)

  • Pre-Columbian Art and new territories (Indonesian Art, Inuit Art)

  • The sensitive issue of restitution

  • Interviews (Alexis Maggiar, Pierre Mollfulleda, Fredric Backlar, Bernard Dulon, H+R Experts, Jacques Blazy and Johann Levy)

  • Top 50 African Art

  • Top 50 Oceanic Art

  • Top 25 Asian Art

  • Top 25 Native American Art & Inuit Art

  • Top 25 Pre-Columbian Art