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After two years of recovery growth from the Covid-19 pandemic, the global art market shrank last year by 4%, from $67.8bn to $65bn, according to the eighth annual Global Art Market Report, released today. Published by UBS/Art Basel, it surveys 1,600 galleries and independent art dealers and more than 500 auction houses, analysing their turnover for 2023 and exploring wider questions about the trade, The Art Newspaper reported.

The global market has now returned to near the $64.4bn level recorded in 2019, when adjusting for inflation. A key reason for this contraction is the decline in sales of the most expensive works—those priced at $10m upwards. The report situates this against “a backdrop of increasing interest rates, stubbornly high inflation, wars and political instability [that] filtered down into more selective and cautious buying at the high-end of the market”. Those high-end sales had been “pivotal” to the post-pandemic growth of 2021 and 2022.

Overall, auction sales fell by a greater degree than dealer sales, by 7% compared to 3%. The largest private dealers, with annual turnover of more than $10m, reported an average decline in sales of 7%.

The US continues to dominate the global market, though its 42% share is down 3% from its peak last year. Its domestic art market has contracted 10% year-on-year, from a record $30.1bn to $27.2bn. New York is the world's leading trading centre for high value works, making it particularly susceptible to shifts in this price category.