Jeff Koons Balloon Dog Orange Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014
The contemporary art market smashed the $2 billion mark for the first time in the year to July 2014 according to Paris based Art price. Sales of contemporary art amounted to $2.046 billion, up 40% on the previous year. Jean Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons and Christopher Wool together accounted for sales of $436 million and 13 pieces each sold for more than 10 million euros.
Basquiat had sales of 162 million euros, Koons had sales of 115 million euros and Prince had 61 million euros. The remaining artists in the contemporary top ten are Zeng Fanzhi (China), Peter Doig (UK), Richard Prince (US), Martin Kippenberger (Germany), Luo Zhongli (China), Chen Yifei (China) and Zhang Xiaogang. China has 40% of the world market with sales of $811 million compared to $752 million for the US.
Jeff Koons – the subject of a retrospective at the Pompidou Centre at the end of November – holds the record for the most expensive work of art by a living artist sold at auction. His Balloon Dog, Orange made $58.4 million at Christie’s in New York last November.