Industry data

Lawyers are warning UK art market businesses that they must overhaul their direct marketing to consumers ahead of seismic changes to data protection law from May 2018 – or risk hefty fines.

The priorities, concerns and opportunities for the British art market are being taken directly to government with a new report launched this week.

The number of art dealers specialising in modern and contemporary art in central London is growing, and outstripping dealers in period work.

Boosting client confidence and keeping them better informed via new technology head the list of priorities for dealers, according to the LAPADA Members Survey 2017.

The overall value of online sales in the art market increased by 15% in the last year, though many buyers remain cautious about purchasing in this way, according to the annual Hiscox Online Art Trade Report.

Hit by a lack of top-end auction consignments, the global art market declined markedly in 2016, according to the latest art market report.

Key findings from the first Art Basel and USB Global Art Market Report.

The Art Basel Report was the first by Dr Clare McAndrew since leaving TEFAF where she had compiled a report since 2008.

Since its launch in 2002 the TEFAF Art Market Report has established itself as the art and antiques trade’s key annual barometer of size and trends.

It is not often that market economists agree, and so it goes with the TEFAF Art Market Report’s current and previous authors. Economics is, after all, not an exact science and analysing a market as opaque as art and antiques is certainly problematic.

An academic report based on a small sample of dealers and auctioneers has called for “significant structural changes” to the laws governing the sale of ivory.