The Online Art Market – An Analysis

An article based on TEFAF Art Market Report 2016

As technology has advanced and e-commerce has become an everyday part of nearly all retail industries, interest in buying art online has escalated, and dealers, auction houses and other agents have met this demand through different business models and access points – as reported by the TEFAF art market report.

To understand the impact of the online business model, one needs to view the size of the total market. In 2005 the estimated value of art sales worldwide was $35.9 billion comprised of 28.2 million transactions. In 2015 sales nearly doubled to $63.756 billion, with the number of transactions growing to 38.1 million. The change in value from 2005-2015 was 77.6% and volume increased by 35.2% (reported by Arts Economics).

The United States has been the largest market for art by value for the last 20 years; with a share of 43% of the global market and the three largest players by geography are the U.S. (43%) the U.K. (21%) and China with 19%.