Romanian art market exceeds EUR 7.5 mln in 2014

Romanian art auction houses report at the end of 2014 total sales ranging between EUR 500,000 and EUR 6 million, reports local Agerpres, leading to a market above EUR 7.5 million. Artmark, the top player on this market, registered total sales of over EUR 6 million this year, representatives of the auction house told local Agerpres. Artmark organized a total of 38 auctions of fine art, decorative objects and jewelry in 2014, meaning a total of 5,000 lots. Nicolae Tonitza’s Pregătiri de masă (Interior IV) (Setting the table (Interior IV) was the art item sold for the highest price - EUR 85,000. The company plans to launch Artmark Historical Estate, which will sell historical and cultral monuments, in 2015. The launch event is scheduled for January 28, 2015. The Artmark lot that registered the biggest difference between the starting price and the sale price was the Paykan Hillman-Hunter limousine belonging to late communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu: the starting price was EUR 4,000, but the car was sold for EUR 37,000. Grimberg registered total sales of EUR 500,000 this year, representatives of the auction house told Agerpres, while Alis auction house had total sales of some EUR 1 million. Two other art auction houses on the market are Goldart - Ghildush, and AraArt. Some of the most best-selling art works were those signed by Romanian artists Nicolae Tonitza and Corneliu Baba, as well as works illustrating the Communist era, also called “The golden age”. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com