Biennale di Venezia and Art Market: Interconnections Without Hypocrisy

Antonella Crippa, coordinator of Art Advisory & Fair Value at Intesa Sanpaolo and former Artribune contributor, analyzes the health of the art market in light of the 59th Venice Biennale and the Art Basel-UBS report. The Biennale serves as a market barometer; the 2022 edition, postponed due to the pandemic, opened just after the release of Clare McAndrew's Art Market Report. The report shows a 29% market recovery in 2021, with aggregate sales of $65.1 billion, surpassing 2019 levels. Despite the Ukraine war, the Biennale was crowded and optimistic, with the Ukrainian Pavilion implicitly answering 'yes' to whether art can be made after Bucha. The US dominates the market with 43% of value, followed by the UK at 29%. Surrealism is the dominant artistic movement, with Leonora Carrington inspiring the exhibition title and Cecilia Vicuña winning the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement. Female artists predominate, including Simone Leigh and Sonia Boyce winning Golden Lions. NFTs were scarce at the Biennale but grew from $4.6 million in 2019 to over $11 billion in 2021, though only 6% of dealers sold NFTs. The market is highly polarized: top-tier works over $10 million drive growth, with average spending by high-net-worth collectors rising from $72,000 in 2019 to $274,000 in 2021. Post-War and Contemporary art accounts for 55% of market value.