Invest in Fine Art
The Artprice100® index follows 100 “blue chip” artists such as Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg (+59%), Antoni Tapies (+48%) and René Magritte.
Over 18 years, the Artprice100® grew by 360%, generating an average annual return of 8.9%.
This revolutionary approach to investment in the Art Market allows the financial and investment community to apprehend the Art Market via the art of “index management”, a possibility that was hitherto non-existent. This average annual return of 8.9% represents the profitability of the art market’s most stable segment.
Art Index 100 Vs S&P500
Investing in Fine Art
In 2000, the value of the Artprice100® increased by 10.9%. Thus, for an initial investment of $100, the value of this portfolio reached $110.90 by the end of 2000.
Artist breakdown: In 2000, the artist Pablo Picasso had a 16% weighting in the portfolio. During that year, his auction performance contracted by 9%. Therefore, the initial $16 invested in Pablo Picasso (16% of $100) was valued on 31st December, 2000 at $14.60.
Fortunately, the portfolio’s blue chip artist diversification helped offset Pablo Picasso’s negative performance in 2000. So, for example, that year saw strong positive performances from Robert Rauschenberg (+59%), Antoni Tapies (+48%), René Magritte (+18%), allowing the Artprice100® index to post a remarkable performance for the portfolio as a whole.
The Artists
Composition of the Artprice100® in 2000
Rank – Artist – Weight
1 – Pablo PICASSO – 16.1%
2 – Claude MONET – 7.8%
3 – Paul CÉZANNE – 5.3%
4 – Pierre-Auguste RENOIR – 4.7%
5 – Edgar DEGAS – 3.9%
6 – Henri MATISSE – 2.9%
7 – Marc CHAGALL – 2.8%
8 – Amedeo MODIGLIANI – 2.8%
9 – Andy WARHOL – 2.2%
10 – Joan MIRO – 2.0%
11 – Camille PISSARRO – 1.7%
12 – Fernand LÉGER – 1.7%
13 – René MAGRITTE – 1.6%
14 – Henry MOORE – 1.4%
15 – Alberto GIACOMETTI – 1.3%
16 – Auguste RODIN – 1.2%
17 – Georges BRAQUE – 1.1%
18 – Pierre BONNARD – 1.1%
19 – Jean DUBUFFET – 1.1%
20 – Kees VAN DONGEN – 1.0%
21 – Paul GAUGUIN – 1.0%
22 – Jasper JOHNS – 1.0%
23 – Wassily KANDINSKY – 1.0%
24 – Paul KLEE – 0.9%
25 – Alexander CALDER – 0.9%
26 – Alfred James MUNNINGS – 0.9%
27 – Alfred SISLEY – 0.9%
28 – Maurice DE VLAMINCK – 0.9%
29 – Gerhard RICHTER – 0.8%
30 – Édouard VUILLARD – 0.8%
31 – Willem DE KOONING – 0.8%
32 – Jean-Michel BASQUIAT – 0.8%
33 – Emil NOLDE – 0.8%
34 – Roy LICHTENSTEIN – 0.8%
35 – Giorgio MORANDI – 0.8%
36 – Egon SCHIELE – 0.7%
37 – Pieter II BRUEGHEL – 0.7%
38 – Salvador DALI – 0.7%
39 – Lucio FONTANA – 0.7%
40 – Juan GRIS – 0.6%
41 – Giorgio DE CHIRICO – 0.6%
42 – Ernst Ludwig KIRCHNER – 0.6%
43 – Maurice UTRILLO – 0.6%
44 – Raoul DUFY – 0.6%
45 – Eugène BOUDIN – 0.6%
46 – Camille Jean-Baptiste COROT – 0.5%
47 – Paul SIGNAC – 0.5%
48 – Edvard MUNCH – 0.5%
49 – Francis BACON – 0.5%
50 – Rufino TAMAYO – 0.5%
51 – Alexej VON JAWLENSKY – 0.5%
52 – Cy TWOMBLY – 0.4%
53 – Wifredo LAM – 0.4%
54 – Diego GIACOMETTI – 0.4%
55 – Laurence Stephen LOWRY – 0.4%
56 – Piet MONDRIAAN – 0.4%
57 – Marino MARINI – 0.4%
58 – Jack Butler YEATS – 0.4%
59 – Max ERNST – 0.4%
60 – Odilon REDON – 0.4%
61 – Albert MARQUET – 0.4%
62 – Georges ROUAULT – 0.4%
63 – Franz MARC – 0.4%
64 – Sam FRANCIS – 0.3%
65 – Fernando BOTERO – 0.3%
66 – Robert RAUSCHENBERG – 0.3%
67 – Richard DIEBENKORN – 0.3%
68 – Hermann Max PECHSTEIN – 0.3%
69 – Bernard BUFFET – 0.3%
70 – Henri-Théodore FANTIN-LATOUR – 0.3%
71 – Diego RIVERA – 0.3%
72 – Roberto MATTA – 0.3%
73 – Karel APPEL – 0.3%
74 – Georg BASELITZ – 0.3%
75 – Frank STELLA – 0.3%
76 – Serge POLIAKOFF – 0.3%
77 – Moïse KISLING – 0.3%
78 – MAN RAY – 0.3%
79 – Yves KLEIN – 0.3%
80 – ZHANG Daqian – 0.3%
81 – Asger JORN – 0.3%
82 – Gino SEVERINI – 0.3%
83 – John LAVERY – 0.3%
84 – Anders Leonard ZORN – 0.2%
85 – Aristide MAILLOL – 0.2%
86 – Lyonel FEININGER – 0.2%
87 – Erich HECKEL – 0.2%
88 – Max BECKMANN – 0.2%
89 – Sigmar POLKE – 0.2%
90 – Marie LAURENCIN – 0.2%
91 – Henri MARTIN – 0.2%
92 – Henri LE SIDANER – 0.2%
93 – Otto DIX – 0.2%
94 – Louis VALTAT – 0.2%
95 – Gustave LOISEAU – 0.2%
96 – Antoni TAPIES – 0.2%
97 – Jean FAUTRIER – 0.2%
98 – Adrien Jean LE MAYEUR DE MERPRES – 0.2%
99 – Massimo CAMPIGLI – 0.2%
100 – David HOCKNEY – 0.2%
The composition of the Artprice100® for the years 2000 and 2017 is provided in the Appendices. From 2016 to 2017, four artists joined the index and four left (as with stock indices):
Joiners (incoming): Agnes Martin, Francis Picabia, Barbara Hepworth, Michelangelo Pistoletto
Leavers (outgoing): Giorgio De Chirico, Alexej von Jawlensky, Paul Klee, Cindy Sherman
This gradual transformation of the 100 artists within the Artprice100® is striking over the long term. For example, in 2000, there was only one Chinese artist in this list (Zhang Daqian) compared with 18 in 2017.
The Artprice100® index provides essential information since its very composition reflects the progressive evolution of the Art market. The artists included each year in the Top 100 are the market’s most important artists, weighted for their average performances over the previous five years.
This purely objective criterion allows identification of the most stable segment of the Art Market with a built-in evolution mechanism (annual adjustment). In fact, the new index relies on a huge mass of market information (Artprice’s Big Data) and eliminates possible blind spots that might escape the Index’s Scientific Council by analysing repeat sales and auction results from all over the planet. With its intranet connecting it with more than 6,300 Auction Houses, Artprice is the only organisation in the world that can process this data and produce an index based on a highly complex series of calculations.
Over the long term, the performance of the Artprice100® largely exceeds that of Artprice’s Global Index and of the US stock market, as represented by the S&P 500.