The Romanian art market also showed an upward trend in 2022, shaped by new trends, increased interest in contemporary art, the emergence of new generations of collectors focused on investment and profitability, the availability of online channels for participating in art transactions, but also the frequency of worthy cultural exhibition projects . The evolution of the Romanian art market was determined by three “mores”: more art auctions, more (new) auction themes, more (young) buyers.

Check out the 10 indicators that will define our art market in 2022 below:

What we did interesting in 2022

With 50 auctions, the total auction prizes are approx. €10.8 million and an average reward rate of 72%, it was an intense year (16% more auctions than in 2021 and 21% more auctions than in 2020) and diverse in terms of topics (28 topics, including several new ), with numerous copyright records and a focus on development (both territorially – new jurisdictions and operationally – new auction functions).

Expansion in Bulgaria and Croatia

Between April and November 2022, Artmark expanded into two European jurisdictions, Bulgaria and Croatia, opening two auction houses in Sofia and Zagreb under the Romanian Artmark brand name. The first local art auctions are planned for spring-summer 2023 (and we are looking forward to them!).

More members online

The number of unique online participants in auctions organized by A10 by Artmark increased by 14% in 2022 compared to 2021 (correspondingly, the rate of opening new online accounts to participate in fine art auctions increased by approximately 25%). That’s not to say that the lifting of pandemic restrictions hasn’t started to gradually bring people who want to participate in physical auctions (or just art lovers who are curious about how an art auction with a room works) back to offline auction rooms.

Artmark is a center for information about Romanian art

With a traffic of more than one million unique visitors in 2022, an increase of 35% compared to the previous year, artmark.ro maintains and enhances its status as the main platform for the promotion of the national artistic heritage, as well as the official mercurial of the Romanian art market art. The auction house’s Facebook account also reached a global audience of over four hundred thousand users in 2022, and its Instagram account saw a 40% increase in traffic. Artmark’s A10 TikTok account, launched in October, reached one million views in the last three months of the year.

Artmark Live 2.0

In July 2022, the Artmark Live 2.0 platform was updated and replaced the original online auction platform (launched more than ten years ago, in 2011, when it was the first online auction platform in Europe, developed by a Romanian company Art Games software). Thanks to the latest technological innovations, the new 2.0 platform ensures 100% confidentiality of auction data transmitted between users and the auctioneer, such as “end-to-end encryption”; at the same time, the platform offers a more intuitive user experience as well as new customization features to benefit each user.

Bidders from 32 countries

The wide variety of art and collectibles, many of which have a vocation for international circulation, attracted bidders from many other jurisdictions and cultures outside of Romania (not including physical or telephone bidders, but only those online): South Africa, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, United States of America, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary.

Top sellers in 2022

;

And because we like charts, here are some of the sales in 2022, some of them the most significant of the year and others of absolute records, organized by themes like: 1. Romanian painting: Nicolae Grigorescu – “Ciobănaș/ Pe Bucegi » – 196 thousand euros; 2. Contemporary art: Ștefan Câltia – “The world as a theater” – 75 thousand euros; 3. Technical rarities: encryption machine “Enigma”, used by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, model “K” – 95 thousand euros; 4. Collector cars: 1967 Ford Mustang GT Fastback – 70,000 euros; 5. Collectable drinks: A bottle of Springbank 50 whiskey, 1919, bottled in 1969 – 12 thousand euros; 6. Rare book and bibliophilia: Hrysov assignment, issued by Voivode Alexander cel Bun in 1412 – 31,000 euros; 7. Watches: Rolex Daytona men’s watch, made of gold, decorated with diamonds, 2016 – 45 thousand euros; 8. Historical products: a watch with a gold chain, decorated with diamonds and enamels, made by Paul Thelge for the Romanian Queen Elizabeth, in 1886 – 33 thousand euros; 9. Numismatics: Gold coin of 100 lei of 1922 – 12 thousand euros; 10. Sacred art: Romanian icon on wood, representing the “Crucifixion of the Lord”, era Neagoe Basarab (beginning of the 16th century) – 12,000 euros.

–

Growing demand for Romanian contemporary art

The most sought-after contemporary artists during 2022 were, in order of the total value of transactions through the A10: Stefan Caltia (311 thousand euros), Ion Suculescu (295 thousand euros), Corneliu Baba (200 thousand euros), Sabin Balasa (196). thousand euros), Felix Aftene (163 thousand euros), Gheorghe Mazilu (161 thousand euros), Konstantin Pilyuce (158 thousand euros), Alexander Chuchurenka (142 thousand euros), Adrian Geni (114 thousand euros), Marcel Huguianu (103 thousand euros). ). The emphasis, which is taking place, we note, in parallel with the decrease in the average age of judges from 48 years (2021) to 46 years (2022), as well as in parallel with the gradual consolidation of the segment of participants aged 20 and over. -35 years (which is 14.27% of the total number of unique awards in 2022).

New topics

2022 was the year of the introduction of two new auction themes: “Arta Azi”, dedicated to the segment of contemporary art, ultra-modern and new trends (with two auctions, in February and September), as well as digital art (with an auction exclusively dedicated to “nft”, in February 2022); perhaps it would not be without interest to highlight, even in this limited reporting system, the recent appearance, in 2022, of the share of the Romanian art market of many young and very young artists, a segment of which the market is gradually becoming interested in: Marc (b. 1999), Silviu Preda (b. 1997), Adrian Piorescu (b. 1997), etc. 2022 was also the year of functionalization of numismatic topics (3 auctions were devoted to them), as well as the topic of old cards (2 auctions) – demanding topics well professionalized by erudite, niche collectors.

Good deeds

With 4 charity auctions in 2022 – Help Autism, OvidiuRo, Pipera Rotary Club’s Listening with Heart project, but especially the “all charity” auction, which is the “Good Deeds Auction 2022”, a charity concept presented by in its second edition, A10 continues to thank and express its gratitude to its sponsors and the charitable causes promoted through the Artmark platform. The Good Deeds Auction 2022 raised approximately €200,000, which will go to 10 promoted charity projects. – the project to reduce school dropout with the support of the Romanian Red Cross, the SOS Children’s Villages project, the projects of the Regina Maria Social Innovation Fund, the Healthy Hearts for Children project of the Polisano Foundation, etc.

What trends do we see in the coming years?

Always a challenging bet for a growing market like the Romanian art market! We expect the strengthening of the big museum names, between whose quotation and the next echelon the gap will gradually increase, the increase and diversification of interest in Romanian contemporary art, the consolidation and professionalization of market niches such as important religious art, numismatics, collector cars, traditional Romanian art – but also to gradual evolution and restructuring of the Romanian art market – to online, to greater transparency in transactions and guarantees, to integrated services.

Article supported by A10 by Artmark