Art auctions saw a record year in 2021 with $17.1 billion (15.6 billion euros) in sales as the market continued its rapid growth in Asia and recovered from its coronavirus slump, experts Artprice said Monday.
The figure marked a 60-percent increase on 2020, when sales were hit by the initial disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, and 28-percent compared with 2019, according to the firm’s annual report.
“The global art market regained much of its customary dynamism, and a whole lot more as well,” the report said.
It was boosted by a number of big-name auctions such as the $45-million Botticelli and $34.9-million Frida Kahlo sales in New York.
There was also the landmark moment when digital artist Beeple sold a NFT for $69 million, the third-highest figure ever paid for a living artist.
Most NFTs are sold on crypto-exchanges (Ethereum alone sold some $40 billion of them last year) that
