2.1 Art Market
“The South Korean Art Market is growing rapidly towards the size of 500 Billion KRW”
According to the results of the ‘2018 Art Market Survey’ conducted by the Art Management Support Center, the size of the Korean art market was estimated to be 494.2 billion KRW as of 2017, which is a 24.7% increase from the market size of 394.6 billion KRW in 2016. This was the largest surge in the size since 2008, when the survey on the actual condition of the art market began, and it has shown a steep rise of about 100 billion KRW. In addition, if you look at the trend of art transactions in the Korean Art Market since 2013, you might notice that the trend has continued to rise, and this trend is expected to continue to rise in the mid to long-term perspective.
In 2017, the total sales of the Global Online Art Market reached a record high of $5.4B (about 6.1 trillion KRW) and surged to its ATH. The online sales increased by 10% compared to the previous year, and it was then equivalent to 8% of the total sales of the Global Art Market. From 2012 to 2017, the online art market continued to show a growth pattern, being up 72% over the past five years.
The online art market is recognized as an important channel that allows most of the artists or specialized workers to connect and meet new art piece collectors over time. In 2017, 53% of art buyers through the online art market were totally new collectors that had never directly participated in the artwork purchase procedures online, and 41% of them were buyers who had never been to an offline auction house. On the other hand, 33% of buyers have previously purchased works in the offline art market or have directly or indirectly encountered the art market.
As of 2017, dealers who use online platforms to trade the artworks with offline channels such as art fairs and galleries also met 73% of the new collectors they met through the online market. In addition, 28% of dealers' total sales were made through online sales, and 67% of dealers who used online channels for art transactions used online platforms.
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