Will Frieze Art Fair be Surpassing the FIAC? [09/20/2004]
During the last 15 days of October, London, and then Paris, will host two of
the largest contemporary art fairs in Europe. A week before the Paris fair,
the second edition of London's contemporary art fair - baptised Frieze -
hopes to capitalise on last year's success with yet more visitors and more
galleries participating. With London only three hours from Paris by Eurostar,
the more enthusiastic art buyers will undoubtedly be visiting both, thus
resulting in a fierce competition.
Frieze Art Fair: key data
Edition : 2
Exhibitors : 150
Visitors : 40,000
Ticket: GBP 12
Dates: From October 15th to October 18th 2004
Venue: Regent's Park, LONDON
FIAC: Key Data
Edition : 31
Exhibitors : 217
French Exhibitors : 111
Estimated Visitors : 80,000
Ticket: EUR 15
Dates: From October 20th to October 25th 2004
Venue: Paris expo, Porte de Versailles, PARIS
Contemporary art market:
In the Contemporary Art sphere, a real gap has appeared between the French market and the UK and US markets. The Artprice figures are eloquent in themselves. 50% of contemporary paintings sold in France change
hands for less than EUR500. In the United Kingdom, the median price for contemporary paintings is EUR 4,800!
In purely financial terms, contemporary art generates lower returns than
the rest of the art market. Over the last twelve months, the prices of works
by artists born after 1940 have progressed 4.59% while prices on the art
market taken as a whole have risen 7.72%. Thus, EUR100 invested in a
contemporary painting 10 years ago is today worth on average EUR136 compared
to EUR 146 for the market as a whole. Another disadvantage: 41.4% of
contemporary paintings put up for auction went unsold in the first half of
2004 compared to 37.4% in 2003. This compares to a bought-in rate in the UK
of only 20.6%.
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