Are paintings really a lucrative investment?

In the second half of 2018, investors were hit by a global decline in stock prices. Among them, only paintings reportedly continued to rise steadily in price. Here is a press release from ArtPrice, a French art price database company. According to them, the Artprice 100© index of 100 artists selected by Artprice was up 4.3% while the S&P 500 index in the U.S. was up only 2.4% for the year. Comparing the figures with 2000 as 100, the S&P 500 has doubled in 18 years, while the Artprice100© has increased by approximately five times.

Popular Artists at Auction

What artists have been selected for the Artprice100©, a collection of the 100 best-selling artists in the art market? The ranking of the compositions in 2018 is as follows. The large number of Chinese artists is probably due to the fact that the Chinese market is so thriving.

1: Pablo Picasso


2: Andy Warhol


3: Zhang Da-chiang


4: Qi Baishi


5: Claude Monet


6: Jean-Michel Basquiat


7: Gerhard Richter


8: Alberto Giacometti


9: Fu Houshi


10: Cy Twombly



Incidentally, two Japanese artists, Yayoi Kusama in 33rd place and Tsuguharu Fujita in 92nd place, are on the list. Yayoi Kusama is the top female artist, and Tsuguharu Fujita was newly included in the portfolio in 2018 due to his recent popularity.

Borderlessing the Art World

In the 2018 Sotheby's Art Sold Ranking, Chinese contemporary artist Zhao Wuqi's "June-October 1985" (approx. 7.4 billion yen) came in second place behind Modigliani's "Lying Nude" (approx. 7.3 billion yen) Third place went to Picasso's "Woman with a Beret" (approx. 7.4 billion yen), so It is easy to see how highly regarded Zhao Wuqi is. It would have been unimaginable 10 years ago for a Chinese artist to rise so high in the rankings, and it is a reminder of the globalization of art.