Greek Art Is Resilient To Violent Financial Instability
Supply and demand is a key word in all markets and this is certainly true of the Greek Art Market.
There are only four annual auctions on the international scene and only about eight hundred to a thousand pieces of art on offer in total, including all other smaller auctions too. The offer is very little for a nation of over twenty million people spread worldwide and with serious money power.
Top among these millions are the rich shipping tycoons, who are well known collectors of Greek art and anything related to Greece. International investors recognised the potential in The Greek Art and money from investment institutions is entering the market too. That being at a limited level at present, it promises a stronger presence in the future.
Reasonable Prices
Couple that with prices that are still very reasonable for nearly all the Greek artists and one realises that there is still serious potential in the market and a lot of catching up to do, when compared to prices in other markets of national appeal. This applies to all art starting from 1870 to today. The top art works by any Greek artist is just about 1,500,000 sterling pounds, which is way lower when compared to similar works of other nationalities.
The best Greek artists of the nineteenth centuries such as Ghysis, Lytras, Ralli and Volanakis, Jacobides and twentieth century such as Parthenis and Ghika, Spyropoulos rarely sell over the 500,000 pounds mark for their best works. That is still well below international levels and for the quality on offer. A few exceptions clearly point to higher potential at all levels depending on quality and rarity. Contemporary artists, who still work and produce, command prices at up 300,000 ( Fassianos, Moralis), which is again low compared to prices of similar artists of other nationalities.
Few Artists For Sale; Selected Auction Names
The true picture of investing in Greek art becomes more apparent and revealing when one examines the lower end of the market where artists make their first appearance at auction and slowly and gradually establish themselves as good investment auction artists. Names such as Papanelopoulos, Zenetzis, Bekiari, Kalogeropoulos, Geros, Stylianides, Karayan, Filopoulou and many more are a few artists proving the point above.
The major auction houses out of necessity had to and have to promote and sell up and coming artists of yesterday and today. There are only about three hundred auction artists from Greece at present and that suggests climbing prices for those artists, as the demand is very good and still increasing. This is due to the great promotional work by auctions, the media and of course wealth in the Greek world. Greeks of the diaspora as well as at home are much wealthier and more interested in their heritage and culture, which explains partly the reasonable, constant price rises in Greek art.
Greek Art Investments Of Twenty Years Proven Successful
Concluding, Constantart started investing seriously in Greek art in 1987. We cannot complain about the portofolio in stock and the potential of the investments that are already in place and future ones to come. Visit our galleries for a taste of our stock about which more info can be provided on request. Our literature is continually updated to include new information on existing stock and new stock!
We also exhibit a few works of art from other emerging and existing international markets which we believe promise reasonable to very good investment returns. In particular we believe that South East Asia and the Indian sub-continent are the areas of the future and as such art will be a primary investment of the rich and forward looking.
Peter Constant BA, MA Arts
