Most art collectors and investors might be trembling in horror, as for the last 2 years, the art market has been slow and cheap (compared to other periods).

In 2020, humanity got struck with the pandemic, which in case you didn't know, was a very good moment for the art market. People were obligated to stay home and sink into the mud of loneliness. And that's probably why a lot of people started to think "I should get a new painting to hang on my wall" or "Wouldn't it be nice to have some artwork here, inside my house, so people can visit me and think I'm some kind of art snob?" which lead to a high demand of artworks worldwide, that also affected the big auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's.

At the same time, everyone was obsessed over the crypto market, because "everything must be digital", that's why the NFT market rose once again during the pandemic. Not because the NFTs were good, not because the projects were interesting, but because everyone was desperate enough to buy useless stuff they did not even care about. I'm not an NFT hater, but even I must admit most NFTs do not carry any kind of value other than the collectible experience and emotional attachment.

The post pandemic fever passed away, and hundreds of art galleries had to cut costs, fire personall or even shut down entirely, because the global market was already saturated.

Artnet (one of the biggest online art markets) stated in their "Mid Year Review" some interesting metrics.

The total spent on fine art auctions in the first half of 2024 was 5.05 billion dollars, which is almost 30% less than the equivalent period in 2023 (which wasn't really a good year).

I'll not extend myself talking about numbers or data, you guys can do the math and find the statistics on statista.com.

What I really want to express, in this rant, is that the art market is just like a Boeing plane. It can only fly so far until it crashes. And that also applies to other speculative markets. When your liquidity and profit are dependent on the human mind, hype, and fears, you need to accept the fact that the graphics NEED to go up and down; this is the essence of the market. The drama, the adrenaline, the fear and sheer happiness of gambling, buying artwork without knowing if the prices will go up or down (only applied to investors).

Collectors can delight themselves in buying and acquiring paintings from great masters, for an "accessible" price, even though most of the artworks under their roof are now undervalued when compared to the past.

What most people seem to forget is that in order for great stuff to happen, we need the market to change. We need new challenges, new problems, new points of view. The pandemic brought so much to the art world, and now we are waiting for the next big thing. The next big artist, the next big trend. Who knows what can happen in the near future.

"And so in every art one realizes there comes a point where your will is exhausted, you’ve tried everything to make something work, and it won’t work. And then, to achieve the perfection of the art, something has to happen of itself—which we variously call grace, inspiration, or tariki. And the problem that everybody’s always wanted to know is: how to make that happen?" - Alan Watts.

We must patiently wait, and the future will come, and the art market shall rise. True art can never decay, and interesting concepts can never be ignored.

If your interests are pointing towards investing in the art market, just make sure not to buy some bullshit overpriced scam from an amateur contemporary tiktok artist.

Do you want to know my opinion? I'll illuminate you with my big brain full of great thoughts. As always, my advice when buying an artwork: buy something you like. If the artwork gets more value as the years pass by, good job! You have a good investment in your hands. If not, at least you have something you like hanging on the wall.

Thanks for reading, I hope this article was kinda fun to read. Stoots