Part 1) Can art be “indexed” like stocks?
Not perfectly (art trades infrequently, and every painting is unique), but we can track a representative basket. Artprice’s Artprice100 follows 100 “blue-chip” artists via auction data. It printed +1.55% in 2023, then –8.3% in 2024, and is still roughly +405% since 2000—evidence that art can behave like a long-horizon asset class, though with very lumpy year-to-year moves. For context, the S&P 500 price index (ignoring dividends) went from 1,469.25 (Dec 31, 1999) to 4,766.18 (Dec 31, 2021), or about +224%. That’s a handy yardstick when you look at any single artwork’s long-run outcome.
Part 2) A quick, sourced tour of price changes for major works
Below is a plain-English, fully sourced tour through 22 famous works, with simple before/after prices and percent change where we have two clean auction points. No inflation adjustments; all figures are in the currency of sale. FX assumptions are noted separately.
| Artwork | First Sale | Latest Sale | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Monet, Meules (Haystacks) | 1986 $2.5M | 2019 $110.7M | +4,330% |
| Roy Lichtenstein, Nurse | 1995 $1.74M | 2015 $95.4M | +5,373% |
| Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (skull) | 1984 $19k | 2017 $110.5M | +581,479% |
| Banksy, Love is in the Bin | 2018 £1.04M | 2021 £18.6M | +1,683% |
| Pablo Picasso, Femme assise près d’une fenêtre | 2013 £28.6M | 2021 $103.4M | +131% (FX adj) |
| Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition | 2008 $60.0M | 2018 $85.8M | +43% |
| Amedeo Modigliani, Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) | 2003 $26.9M | 2018 $157.2M | +484% |
| Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel | 1982 £810k | 2021 $92.2M | +6,405% (FX adj) |
| Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (599) | 1999 $0.61M | 2015 $46.35M | +7,530% |
| Peter Doig, Swamped | 2015 $25.9M | 2021 $39.9M | +54% |
| David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) | 2018 $90.3M | - | single record |
| Edward Hopper, Chop Suey | 1973 $180k | 2018 $91.9M | +50,942% |
| Rembrandt, Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo | 2009 £20.2M | - | single record |
| Banksy, Devolved Parliament | 2019 £9.88M | - | single record |
| Andy Warhol, Green Car Crash | 2007 $71.7M | - | single record |
| Sandro Botticelli, The Man of Sorrows | 1963 £10k | 2022 $45.42M | +162,113% (FX adj) |
| Georgia O’Keeffe, Jimson Weed/White Flower No.1 | 2014 $44.4M | - | single record |
| J. M. W. Turner, Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino | 1878 4,450 guineas (~£4.67k) | 2010 £29.72M | +635,989% |
| Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (809-4) | 2012 £21.3M | - | single record |
| David Hockney, The Splash | 2006 £2.92M | 2020 £23.1M | +691% |
| Alberto Giacometti, L’Homme qui marche I | 2010 £65.0M (~$104M) | - | single record |
| Georgia O’Keeffe, Jimson Weed (commission) | 1936 $10k | - | commission (not auction) |
Part 3) FX assumptions
When currencies differ, earlier values were converted to USD using year-average FX (or fixed historical parity). Assumptions: - 2013 GBP→USD: 1.5647 - 1982 GBP→USD: 1.7495 - 1963 GBP→USD: 2.80 (Bretton Woods) - 1 guinea = £1.05
Part 4) What does this tell us?
Blue-chip art has delivered spectacular returns in select cases, rivaling or beating stocks over decades. But the index-level data shows lumpiness: +405% since 2000 (versus +224% for S&P 500 price), yet with recent down years like –8.3% in 2024. Unlike stocks, art isn’t liquid, carries high transaction/storage costs, and has no dividends. So while the raw numbers dazzle, art is best read as a diversifying long-horizon asset, not a stock substitute.
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