Sales of classic Old Masters made the best-performing arty asset class in 2023, although modern art seems to be falling out of favour.
Fresh figures from the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index (KFLII), which tracks the performance of 10 luxury investments including wine, watches and furniture, reveal what wealthy Brits are splashing the cash on.
All of the gains in art prices came in the first half of the year, with values sliding significantly later on, according to AMR’s All-Art Index.
Modern art was the culprit of weak art sales in the latter half of the year: contemporary pieces experienced the biggest contraction in 2023.
“With freshly painted works in excess of £100,000 almost doubling in 2022, it was little surprise that this sector was one of the biggest casualties last year,” Sebastian Duthy at data company AMR said. “There is a risk there are now simply too many fresh paint artists with none really standing out.”
The index as whole fell in 2023 for only the second time in its life, by one per cent, with Sotheby’s selling a Bronzino work for a £8.56 million last January, setting a record for the artist
Luxury goods are often seen as safe assets, as they are less volatile than stocks and normally appreciate in value over time.
“Several stalwart members of the index dropped into the red or showed minimal gains. However, a peek behind the headlines reveals it’s not all doom and gloom, with some of the losses are simply down to the froth coming off markets,” Andrew Shirley, editor of the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index said.
Jewellery, watches, coins and colour diamonds made up the top-five best performing assets. with rare whisky bottles the worst performer in the index.
“2023 continued to be a challenging year… But while the worst performing 50 bottles lost 26% of their combined value, the remaining 50 bottles gained 5%, with the 20 best performers increasing by a respectable 20%,” Andy Simpson of Simpson Reserved said.
“In my opinion some bottles that lost significant value in 2023 will return through the next two years as they are simply so scarce and, right now at least, so undervalued.”
The report also points out a string of record-breaking sales in 2023: The priciest bottle of Scottish whisky, the most expensive Ferrari 250 GTO, the costliest blue diamond, and the most expensive sword were all sold in 2023.