<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47244700.cms" />A Picasso masterpiece fetched more than $179 million in <keyword id="6355838" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="New-York">New York</keyword> on Monday, smashing the world record for the most expensive art sold at auction in what was dubbed the "sale of the century." 
 The oil painting, "The <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Women">Women</keyword> of <keyword id="147983" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="ALGIERS">Algiers</keyword> (Version 0)," sold for $179,365,000 after more than 11 minutes of furious bidding from telephone buyers at a packed auction room at <keyword id="56712" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Christies">Christie's</keyword>. 
 
Applause erupted when the sale was finalized in an atmosphere of feverish excitement, accompanied by laughter and jokes, fetching way over its pre-sale estimate of $140 million. 
 The previous world record for a painting sold at auction was $142.4 million, set for British <keyword id="6448302" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Painter">painter</keyword> <keyword id="367925" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Francis-Bacon">Francis Bacon</keyword>'s "Three Studies of <keyword id="194194" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Lucian-Freud">Lucian Freud</keyword>," which was sold by Christie's in New York in 2013. 
 The 1955 painting by <keyword id="105893" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Pablo-Picasso">Pablo Picasso</keyword> is one of the last major paintings by the Spanish master still in private hands. He painted several versions until he settled on the nearly four-by-five-foot (121-by-152-centimeter) canvas. 
 A rival highlight of the evening sale is a bronze statue by <keyword id="105892" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Alberto-Giacometti">Alberto Giacometti</keyword> called "Man Pointing," estimated to be worth $130 million, which has also been tipped as a potential record breaker. 
 
"Those two works can set a world record," Loic Gouzer, senior vice president of Christie's, said ahead of Monday's auction. 
 "You don't have another chance to get them." Swiss sculptor Giacometti already holds <keyword id="818966" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="the-record">the record</keyword> for the most expensive sculpture sold at auction with his "Walking Man I" fetching $104.3 million in London in 2010. 
 
Christie's is offering a total of 35 lots spanning more than a century from 1902 to 2011, and expected to score in excess of $500 million at its swanky New York premises at Rockefeller Plaza. 
 
Other highlights are Picasso's "Buste de femme" oil painting, valued at $55 million, a painting from Claude Monet's "The House of Parliament" series, valued at $35 to $45 million, and Mark Rothko's 1958 "No 36, Black Stripe," with an estimated value of $30-$50 million. 
 
Exponential growth in the art market, particularly for modern and contemporary works, is attributed to a growing number of private investors around the world and burgeoning interest in Asia and the Gulf. 
 The proceeds from public art auctions rose 26 percent from $12.05 billion in 2013 to $15.2 billion in 2014, and grew 422 percent between 2000 and 2014, according to <keyword id="913814" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Artprice">Artprice</keyword>, a leader in art market information. 
 Artprice CEO <keyword id="2743769" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Thierry-Ehrmann">Thierry Ehrmann</keyword> told AFP that interest would be particularly strong for the Giacometti statue, which it believed could go as high as $175 to $200 million and eclipse the Picasso. 
 
"This will be the sale of the century," said Ehrmann. "It's a tipping point in the history of art." 
 
There are only six casts in the world of "Man Pointing," which shows a wiry, nearly six-foot (1.8-meter) man holding up one hand and pointing with the other. 
 New York's spring auction season began last week at <keyword id="165441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Sothebys">Sotheby's</keyword>, which sold a Vincent <keyword id="89453" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Van-Gogh">van Gogh</keyword> painting for more than $66 million, the most paid for a work by the Dutch post-impressionist since 1998. 
 Van Gogh's "Les Alyscamps," which depicts a stand of autumnal trees, had been expected to go for around $40 million but was finally snapped up by an Asian <keyword id="6371177" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Collector">collector</keyword> after an intense bidding war. 
 
The sales continue on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Artprice says the art market offers yields of 10 to 15 percent per year for works valued at over $100,000. 
 
But even if auction records are broken Monday, the Picasso and Giacometti are unlikely to eclipse the $300 million reportedly paid privately by Qatar for Paul Gauguin's 1892 painting "When Will You Marry?" in February.

This painting's the most expensive art sold ever, for a whopping $179 million

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Demand for luxury art has been "insane" over the past decade, an art adviser told Insider.</li><li>For some wealthy collectors, art can be a valuable investment as a recession looms.</li></ul>As real estate values <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-where-housing-real-estate-prices-falling-rising-mortgage-rates-2022-8">dip</a> and the stock market's direction remains <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-crash-sp-500-forecast-inflation-faangs-td-ameritrade-2022-9">uncertain</a>, many of the ultra-wealthy are putting their money into <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rich-millennials-investing-art-flipping-build-wealth-2019-4">luxury art</a>. And increasingly, it's not being displayed in one of their homes, but on their <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boats-yachts-surveyors-sales-stories-pandemic-2022-2">multi-million-dollar</a> megayachts. Demand for luxury art has been "insane" over the past decade as the tech, private equity, and hedge fund industries join the mix, art advisor and collector Elizabeth Margulies told Insider. And as a <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/severe-global-recession-2023-warning-downside-risk-stocks-ned-davis-2022-9">recession looms</a>, this art may do more than impress guests — it could provide some resiliency to the wealthy's investment portfolios. "Art lags equity markets by six to eighteen months, but is faster in its recovery," Magnus Resch, an art market economist and a professor of art economics at Yale University, told Insider. Resch points to <a href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-recession-of-200709">the Great Recession</a>, which saw <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=s%26p+500+chart&amp;oq=s%26p+500+chart&amp;aqs=chrome.0.0i131i433i512l2j0i512l4j69i60l2.3014j1j7&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">financial markets</a> fall in 2007 and not return to pre-crisis levels until 2013. In comparison, auction sales in the art market didn't see a sharp decline <a href="https://medium.com/@masterworksio/what-happens-to-art-in-a-financial-crisis-2cc9c20451b8">until 2009</a> and fully recovered by 2011. In today's challenging economic environment, the art market could provide the long-term returns one-percenters are looking for. From 2000 to 2018, blue-chip art — work from the most recognized artists that tends to carry the highest price tags — <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/amplify/ultra-rich-are-relying-this-secret-investment-build-wealth-during-recession">outperformed</a> the S&amp;P 500 by 180%, according to the art database <a href="https://www.artprice.com/artmarketinsight/artprice-launches-its-blue-chip-art-market-index-artprice100-designed-for-financiers-and-investors-2">Artprice</a>.In the short term, Resch expects many sellers to delay selling their work until economic conditions improve, a dynamic that could reduce supply and help luxury art values "remain stable," he said. During the 2020 downturn for instance, many art collectors seeking liquidity didn't sell their art, but used it as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wealthy-people-consider-liquidating-art-assets-as-recession-looms-2020-4">collateral for loans</a>. For most people, however, Resch says that art is generally a "bad investment, particularly in times of crisis," and it's not only because it's difficult to <a href="http://artemundiglobalfund.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Liquidity-in-the-art-market-FINAL.pdf">turn into cash</a> in a pinch. Indexes that point to the art market's outperformance of the S&amp;P 500 for instance, are a "poor representation" of the global art market, he says, as they only include data from works that have "sold repeatedly." "Considering that more than 99% of all artworks are never re-sold, these indexes only look at the creme de la creme," he said. While ultra-wealthy collectors might come out of an economic downturn unscathed with respect to their art investments, he says that artists, galleries, and art fairs — "almost everyone in the art market" — could be negatively impacted. That's partially because "one-time buyers," which Resch says is the largest demographic, would be more hesitant to purchase luxury art during tough financial times.<h2>The ultra-wealthy are turning their megayachts into "floating art galleries"</h2>The ultra-rich's art portfolios are being taken out to sea. Demand for yachts <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boats-yachts-surveyors-sales-stories-pandemic-2022-2">surged</a> when the pandemic began, as they provided one-percenters the opportunity to escape lockdowns, see the world, and social distance. All this time spent on the water has made yachts "an extension of someone's brand, an extension of their home and somewhere where they want to showcase their collection," Margulies said. "Yachts are like floating art galleries and museums, and it's a reflection of someone's taste, someone's life, someone's wealth," she said, adding that yachts — not houses — are increasingly where the ultra-rich are entertaining guests. So it makes sense they'd want to show off their art there as well."They're spending more time, sometimes, on these yachts than they are in their homes," she adds. "And they want to be around their art."Margulies says these megayachts have crews and amenities that can include spas, saunas, gyms, bars, basketball courts, pickleball courts, and helicopter pads. For the ultra-wealthy looking to one up each other, it can be the art that "sets one $100 million yacht apart from another."She points to Leonardo Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, which became the most <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mohammed-bin-salman-hung-450m-leonardo-da-vinci-painting-salvator-mundi-yacht-cqblvh8s3#:~:text=The%20Rich%20List-,Mohammed%20bin%20Salman%20hung%20%24450m%20Leonardo,painting%20Salvator%20Mundi%20on%20yacht&amp;text=Leonardo%20da%20Vinci's%20Salvator%20Mundi,it%20was%20claimed%20last%20night.">expensive painting sold</a> in history when the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman paid $450 million for it in 2017. The painting was reportedly <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/record-setting-leonardo-da-vinci-work-was-displayed-on-saudi-leaders-yacht-11618252319">on display</a> on the crown prince's 439-foot yacht until late 2020.Given that wealthy art collectors want to preserve their collections, one might question whether the sea is the best place to do so. But not only are many of these yachts temperature-controlled, they are generally so large, Margulies says, "that the weather doesn't really affect the art as much as one would think."<h2>The new generation of wealth still demands luxury art</h2>While some new-age wealth has gravitated to non-physical assets like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-are-people-buying-nfts-investing-in-nft-crypto-art-2021-3">NFTs</a>, many are still drawn to the traditional art world."They see other people who have a lot of money and they see that these people have substantial collections," said Margulies, who happens to be the daughter of the world-renowned art collector Martin Margulies. "So I think it's more like being part of the cool club."With these new buyers in the fold, the competition for luxury art is expected to remain particularly fierce. Many renowned artists are dead, the rising stars are still building their portfolios, and buyers sometimes stray from artists that produce too much, says Margulies.These factors have produced an art market where there is limited supply, and as a result, prices have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/may/20/the-rich-have-got-much-richer-why-art-sale-prices-are-going-through-the-roof">gone through the roof</a>. Looking ahead, Margulies says everyone in the art world is "trying to find the next Picasso." In the meantime, however, she expects the world's richest to continue shelling out on art, even as economic conditions remain uncertain.Resch agrees. "The handful of billionaires will still want to add what's missing in their collections and fight over the few available works," he said. "The super wealthy are always buying art," Margulies said. "The highest level you can really get in wealth is spending $10 million on a painting."

Some ultra-wealthy are buying high-end art for their yachts as a recession hedge while stocks, real estate, and crypto tank on global uncertainty

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5710b17bdd0895bc088b4aca-1843-1382/vase.jpg" alt="vase" data-mce-source="Getty Images" data-link="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/license/82117093" /><a href="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/license/82117093">Getty Images</a></div></div></div>One of the world's largest search engines for fine art and antiques auctions, is launching in China this week.Barnebys, a Swedish-based online auctioneer, says it expects the new market to add 20-25 million Chinese buyers within five years, adding that "it's time to feed the dragon."Western customers can also access Chinese auction house catalogues, thanks to the move.The Chinese art market remains the second largest on earth, behind only the U.S. Sales in China accounted for more than 30% of the market total in 2015, according to industry analysts <a href="http://www.artprice.com/reports/art-market-report-2015" target="_blank">Artprice</a>. More museums were opened worldwide between 2000 and 2014 than in the previous two centuries, with the Asian market having the greatest share of the the 700 new museums opened, Barnebys says.Pontus Silfverstolpe, Barnebys Founder and Head of Content, said the time was right to take advantage of such a huge new market:"China has enormous purchasing power. In recent years, Chinese buyers have been behind many of the American and European auction houses' most successful sales."In the beginning, the Chinese were mainly buying back their heritage, but in recent years we have seen more and more buying of ever wider categories, for example: Rolex watches, handbags, chandeliers, silver and 18th century painting."Despite Barnebys' optimism, the global art market had a tough time in 2015. As Business Insider <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-art-economy-is-tumbling-and-its-mostly-chinas-fault-2016-3" target="_blank">previously reported</a>, global sales dropped 7% from 2014. Things were particularly bad in China where sales fell a massive 23%. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/game-of-thrones-economics-westeros-iron-throne-lannisters-2016-4">This hidden subplot of 'Game of Thrones' spells out the real trouble for the Lannisters</a></h3> <div> <div> <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tvNncydDrkw0Adz4yS0Vsg8DPK1cte-i" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> <script> if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; } RunFunctions.push(function() { var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'tvNncydDrkw0Adz4yS0Vsg8DPK1cte-i',{ autoplay: 'false' }); }); </script> <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div> </div> <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script> </div>

A Western auction house is targeting China saying 'it's time to feed the dragon'

<div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/529f84666bb3f7633958f3fc-1200-924/a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-georges-seurat-1884.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1884" width="480" /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Sunday_on_La_Grande_Jatte,_Georges_Seurat,_1884.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>Georges Seurat was just 26 years old when he painted "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."</div></div>Have you reached your peak <keyword id="6360549" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="creativity">creativity</keyword> level?
If you're under the age of 42, chances are good your best creative years are still ahead of you.
That's according to a new <keyword id="6355244" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Study">study</keyword> out of the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400419.2013.843912#.Uo_VbtJDsc8" target="_blank">Creativity Research Journal</a> by economist Philip Hans Franses of the Erasmus School of Economics in the Netherlands.
Franses examined the lifespans of 221 famous painters between 1800 and 2004, and attempted to determine the year they created their most masterful work based on the artist's most expensive painting ever sold. He gathered the data from both Robert Cumming's "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eyewitness-Companions-EYEWITNESS-COMPANION-GUIDES/dp/0756613582" target="_blank">Eyewitness Companions - Art</a>" as well as the <a href="http://artprice.com/" target="_blank">Artprice.com</a> database.
"For each of these artists, the most expensive painting was identified and taken as an indicator of peak creativity," Franses said in the study. "Of course, many other measurements are possible, but this seems to be the most objective one."
Objective, yes, but not necessarily the best method. Most of the <keyword id="1644" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="paintings">paintings</keyword> associated with the more well-known artists in the study are not their most famous work. There was also only a smattering of female painters who made the list, like Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Mary Cassatt.
Nevertheless, Franses found that on average, the painters produced their most highly-valued work of <keyword id="1105" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="art">art</keyword> when they were an average of 41.92 years old.
He also noted that the paintings were created when the artists had lived roughly 62% of their total lives, and noted that the fraction was striking given that the famous "Golden Ratio" found in art, nature, and even financial forecasting is approximately .618. "[My results were] only 0.0018 away from the divine fraction," Franses said.
Below are some of the more famous painters included in the study, as well as the age they painted their most expensive work to date.
Francisco Goya, "<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bullfight,_Suerte_de_Varas_by_Francisco_de_Goya,_1824,_Getty_Center.JPG" target="_blank">Suerte de Varas</a>" (76 years old)
Edouard Manet, "<a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Rue_Mosnier_aux_drapeaux" target="_blank">La rue Mosnier aux drapeaux</a>" (46 years old)
Claude Monet, "<a href="http://www.artnet.fr/artistes/claude-monet/bassin-aux-nympheas-et-sentier-au-bord-de-l-eau-qLLFh_6M5zarobKDOGxFUQ2" target="_blank">Bassin aux nymphéas et sentier au bord de l'eau</a>" (60 years old)
Mary Cassatt, "<a href="http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/72182.html" target="_blank">In a loge</a>" (35 years old)
Georges Seurat, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sunday_Afternoon_on_the_Island_of_La_Grande_Jatte" target="_blank">Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte</a>" (26 years old)
Vincent van Gogh, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Dr._Gachet" target="_blank">Portrait of Dr. Gachet</a>" (37 years old)
Paul Cézanne, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rideau,_Cruchon_et_Compotier" target="_blank">Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier</a>" (55 years old)
Gustav Klimt, "<a href="http://www.klimtgallery.org/Landhaus-Am-Attersee.html" target="_blank">Landhaus am Attersee</a>" (52 years old)
Henri Matisse, "<a href="http://www.artnet.com/magazine/features/waltzer/waltzer11-10-7.asp" target="_blank">La robe persane</a>" (71 years old)
Salvador Dalí, "<a href="http://www.passion-estampes.com/deco/dalitentationmafemmenue.html" target="_blank">Ma femme nue regardant son propre corps devenir marches</a>" (41 years old)
Man Ray, "<a href="http://www.artnet.com/artists/man+ray/impossibilit%C3%A9-dancer-danger-x-lNzKRh8Hz-PBYhc3P7Tg2" target="_blank">Impossibilité Dancer-Danger</a>" (30 years old)
Pablo Picasso, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gar%C3%A7on_%C3%A0_la_pipe" target="_blank">Boy with a pipe</a>" (24 years old)
Frida Kahlo, "<a href="http://www.malba.org.ar/web/lacoleccion.php?mov=su" target="_blank">Autorretrato con chango y loro</a>" (35 years old)
Georgia O'Keeffe, "<a href="http://artsy.net/artwork/georgia-okeeffe-series-i-from-the-plains" target="_blank">From the plains</a>" (47 years old)
Jackson Pollock, "<a href="http://www.artnet.com/artists/jackson-pollock/number-8-1950-Mxllheyc_Hre--xQz3ZUXQ2" target="_blank">Number 8, 1950</a>" (38 years old)

You Searched For "Artprice" and got 4 results

This painting's the most expensive art sold ever, for a whopping $179 million

BI India Bureau

Some ultra-wealthy are buying high-end art for their yachts as a recession hedge while stocks, real estate, and crypto tank on global uncertainty

Jacob Zinkula

A Western auction house is targeting China saying 'it's time to feed the dragon'

Matthew Nitch Smith

Study Suggests Artists Don't Reach Peak Creativity Until Age 42

Megan Willett