Top-selling artists of the year

Top-ranked artists of 2012: Warhol, Picasso and Richter Top-Selling Artists of the year

Warhol, Picasso and Richter are the “top-selling artists for 2012“, according to Artnet, an internet-based resource for the international art market. Art is a business whose numbers are carefully counted each year. Which artists performed best at auction last year? Take a look at the world’s top-selling artists of 2012, courtesy of artnet Analytics and the artnet Price Database, the most complete illustrated archive of sales results:

1. Andy Warhol (American)
2. Pablo Picasso (Spanish)
3. Gerhard Richter (German)
4. Qi Baishi (Chinese)
5. Zhang Daquian (Chinese)
6. Mark Rothko (American)
7. Li Keran
8. Francis Bacon (Irish)
9. Jean-Michel Basquiat (American)
10. Joan Miro (Spanish)

Pablo Picasso was one of the top-ranked artists of 2012, with over 2,700 lots selling in 2012 for nearly US$335 million. Picasso’s demand has remained consistently high in recent years, with an overall sell-through rate in 2012 above 75%. Validating the strength of art as an alternative asset, many Modern and Contemporary artists have shown stronger returns than financial markets over the last decade; as demonstrated in the graph above, Picasso has outperformed the S&P 500 since 2005, with a robust rebound after the crash.