The Artprice100 Index records a significant advancement in 2025, offering an updated snapshot of the performance of major art names compared to financial markets.
How did the Artprice100 Index move in 2025?
The benchmark dedicated to blue-chip artists in the art market reached its highest level since its creation in 2025, slightly surpassing the peak of January 2024. The second half of the year proved decisive, concentrating 58% of the annual auction turnover and more than compensating for the -8.3% contraction recorded in 2024.
This fifth annual revision of the Artprice100 index provides important insights into both the most stable segment of the international market and the relationship between artwork returns and traditional financial securities’ profitability. In 2025, the index still underperformed the S&P 500, which rose by +17% over twelve months. However, in the medium to long term, the correlation between the two indices appears evident.
That said, the comparison should be conducted with caution. The S&P 500 reflects almost in real-time the prices of listed securities, while the Artprice100 simulates a virtual portfolio invested in the works of certain artists. Its profitability is calculated based on the overall auction results of the last twelve months.
What is the correlation with the S&P 500?
Over a long-term horizon, the price dynamics in art are closely linked to stock market performance. Between 2000 and 2026, the correlation coefficient R between Artprice100 and S&P 500 is 0.88, indicating a strong positive correlation. If the calculation starts from 2010, the relationship intensifies further, with a value up to 0.91.
In the short term, however, the trajectories diverge. In 2024, for example, the Artprice100 lost -8.3%, while the S&P 500 advanced by +24%. This gap highlights how the art market can sometimes markedly deviate from the dynamics of major stock exchanges.
Moreover, the prices of works by major names appear, at times, more volatile than the capitalization of major American companies. That said, the S&P 500 also records significant monthly fluctuations: opening at 5,903 dollars on January 2, 2025, it fell to 4,965 on April 9 (-16%), then rose to 6,945 on December 26 (+40%).
How has the composition of the index changed?
In the last five years, the structure of the Artprice100 has shifted significantly towards recent languages. Post-war art and contemporary art now represent almost half of the basket, with an overall growth of 5 percentage points: their share increased from 40% to 45% in the initial composition.
Internal diversification remains a key factor of stability. In 2025, for example, the price index of Yayoi Kusama retreated by 15%, but the negative impact was offset by the growth of Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose index rose by 18%. In this way, the overall portfolio better absorbed the fluctuations of individual artists.
Why focus on the most established names?
The Artprice100 focuses on the hundred most relevant artists in the global market, selected based on auction turnover and the number of lots sold. This dual criterion, volume and liquidity, excludes excessively rare or speculative names, favoring a broader and more mature segment.
In general, the value of blue-chip artists evolves gradually: phases of acceleration, often linked to major exhibitions or the reappearance of key works, alternate with periods of consolidation. Overall, prices tend to flatten in the long term. With adequate diversification, the Artprice100 has shown a regular growth trend, comparable in the last fifteen years to that of the S&P 500.
Moreover, the demand for these names benefits from the progressive expansion of the global collector base. This expansion supports valuations, especially for artists with a production widely represented in international auctions.
The Magritte case: an example of gradual growth
An emblematic example of this gradual evolution concerns the series The Empire of Lights by René Magritte. One of the 1949 canvases was included in the 2025 sale of the Leonard & Louise Riggio collection at Christie’s New York, on May 12, 2025. The work had already been auctioned twice in the previous eight years.
The three subsequent results for the same canvas were as follows: 20,562,500 dollars on November 13, 2017, 34,910,000 dollars on November 10, 2023, and again 34,910,000 dollars on May 12, 2025. The prices show a strong revaluation in the medium term, followed by a stabilization phase at the last figure.
Magritte’s market particularly benefited from renewed interest in Surrealism, culminating in 2024 with the centenary of the movement and a record exceeding 120 million dollars. This last result concerns another Empire of Lights from 1954, from the Mica Ertegun Collection. In 2025, however, the 1949 canvas, six times smaller than the 1954 one, simply confirmed the price reached two years earlier.
How is the Artprice100 constructed?
Every year, on January 1 (for 2025, the reference date is January 1, 2025), Artprice updates a virtual investment portfolio following a linear rule: taking a fictitious position in the hundred most sold artists at auction. To enter the basket, each artist must record at least ten results per year for five consecutive years; for 2025, the period considered is from 2020 to 2024.
The weight of each artist in the initial portfolio is proportional to the auction turnover generated in the previous five years. This data is reported in the section dedicated to the composition of the index as of January 1, 2025. Additionally, all Fine Art auction results are included, except for prints and multiples, which constitute a slightly distinct segment.
On December 31, 2025, Artprice closed the accounts on the hundred positions and calculated the overall appreciation based on the price indices of individual artists. These indices derive from the set of results obtained at public auctions during the reference period.
What weights do artists have in the portfolio?
In the 2025 basket, the fictitious investment in Pablo Picasso‘s works represents 7.9% of the Artprice100 portfolio as of January 1, 2025; his price index rose by +6% in the following twelve months. Among the new entries is Nicolas Party, with a weight of 0.3% on the initial investment and a decline of -6% in 2025.
Compared to other market indices, this construction favors transaction continuity and trading depth, offering a more accurate picture of the market’s core. For insights into the nature of stock indices, the official pages of S&P Global can be consulted, while long-term art market data is available in the analyses of Artprice and the annual reports of Christie’s.
Complete list of Artprice100 composition
Below is the composition of the index as of January 1, 2025, with percentage weight and historical period of belonging for each artist.
| 1. | Pablo Picasso | Modern Art | 7.9% |
| 2. | Andy Warhol | Post-War | 5.1% |
| 3. | Claude Monet | 19th Century | 4.8% |
| 4. | Jean-Michel Basquiat | Contemporary Art | 4.2% |
| 5. | René Magritte | Modern Art | 3.3% |
| 6. | Gerhard Richter | Post-War | 2.9% |
| 7. | Yayoi Kusama | Post-War | 2.8% |
| 8. | David Hockney | Post-War | 2.2% |
| 9. | Zao Wou-Ki | Post-War | 2.2% |
| 10. | Qi Baishi | Modern Art | 2.1% |
| 11. | Vincent van Gogh | 19th Century | 2.0% |
| 12. | Alberto Giacometti | Modern Art | 1.9% |
| 13. | Cy Twombly | Post-War | 1.9% |
| 14. | Mark Rothko | Modern Art | 1.9% |
| 15. | Willem de Kooning | Modern Art | 1.7% |
| 16. | Yoshitomo Nara | Contemporary Art | 1.6% |
| 17. | François-Xavier Lalanne | Post-War | 1.6% |
| 18. | Wu Guanzhong | Modern Art | 1.5% |
| 19. | Joan Mitchell | Post-War | 1.5% |
| 20. | Paul Cézanne | 19th Century | 1.4% |
| 21. | Fu Baoshi | Modern Art | 1.4% |
| 22. | Banksy | Contemporary Art | 1.4% |
| 23. | Marc Chagall | Modern Art | 1.4% |
| 24. | Roy Lichtenstein | Post-War | 1.4% |
| 25. | Alexander Calder | Modern Art | 1.3% |
| 26. | Ed Ruscha | Post-War | 1.3% |
| 27. | Gustav Klimt | Modern Art | 1.2% |
| 28. | Joan Miró | Modern Art | 1.1% |
| 29. | San You | Modern Art | 1.1% |
| 30. | Lucio Fontana | Modern Art | 1.0% |
| 31. | Pierre-Auguste Renoir | 19th Century | 1.0% |
| 32. | George Condo | Contemporary Art | 0.9% |
| 33. | Jean Dubuffet | Modern Art | 0.9% |
| 34. | Huang Binhong | Modern Art | 0.8% |
| 35. | Chu Teh-Chun | Post-War | 0.7% |
| 36. | Xu Beihong | Modern Art | 0.7% |
| 37. | Jasper Johns | Post-War | 0.7% |
| 38. | Wayne Thiebaud | Post-War | 0.7% |
| 39. | Georgia O’Keeffe | Modern Art | 0.7% |
| 40. | Li Keran | Modern Art | 0.7% |
| 41. | Edgar Degas | 19th Century | 0.7% |
| 42. | Wassily Kandinsky | Modern Art | 0.7% |
| 43. | Fernand Léger | Modern Art | 0.7% |
| 44. | Pierre Soulages | Modern Art | 0.6% |
| 45. | Lin Fengmian | Modern Art | 0.6% |
| 46. | Henri Matisse | Modern Art | 0.6% |
| 47. | Keith Haring | Contemporary Art | 0.6% |
| 48. | Fernando Botero | Post-War | 0.6% |
| 49. | Cecily Brown | Contemporary Art | 0.6% |
| 50. | Paul Gauguin | 19th Century | 0.5% |
| 51. | Henry Moore | Modern Art | 0.5% |
| 52. | Damien Hirst | Contemporary Art | 0.5% |
| 53. | Jeff Koons | Contemporary Art | 0.5% |
| 54. | Georg Baselitz | Post-War | 0.5% |
| 55. | Helen Frankenthaler | Post-War | 0.5% |
| 56. | Frank Stella | Post-War | 0.5% |
| 57. | Christopher Wool | Contemporary Art | 0.5% |
| 58. | Adrian Ghenie | Contemporary Art | 0.5% |
| 59. | Richard Prince | Contemporary Art | 0.5% |
| 60. | Paul Signac | Modern Art | 0.5% |
| 61. | Philip Guston | Modern Art | 0.5% |
| 62. | Yves Klein | Post-War | 0.5% |
| 63. | Agnes Martin | Modern Art | 0.5% |
| 64. | Liu Ye | Contemporary Art | 0.4% |
| 65. | Brice Marden | Post-War | 0.4% |
| 66. | Amedeo Modigliani | Modern Art | 0.4% |
| 67. | Alighiero Boetti | Post-War | 0.4% |
| 68. | Louise Bourgeois | Modern Art | 0.4% |
| 69. | Lu Yanshao | Modern Art | 0.4% |
| 70. | Zhou Chunya | Contemporary Art | 0.4% |
| 71. | Bernard Buffet | Post-War | 0.4% |
| 72. | Salvador Dalí | Modern Art | 0.4% |
| 73. | Peter Doig | Contemporary Art | 0.4% |
| 74. | Zeng Fanzhi | Contemporary Art | 0.4% |
| 75. | Ufan Lee | Post-War | 0.4% |
| 76. | Barbara Hepworth | Modern Art | 0.4% |
| 77. | Pan Tianshou | Modern Art | 0.4% |
| 78. | Piet Mondrian | Modern Art | 0.4% |
| 79. | Huang Zhou | Post-War | 0.4% |
| 80. | Edvard Munch | Modern Art | 0.3% |
| 81. | KAWS | Contemporary Art | 0.3% |
| 82. | Dong Qichang | Old Master | 0.3% |
| 83. | Le Pho | Modern Art | 0.3% |
| 84. | Camille Pissarro | 19th Century | 0.3% |
| 85. | Cui Ruzhuo | Post-War | 0.3% |
| 86. | Laurence Stephen Lowry | Modern Art | 0.3% |
| 87. | Sam Francis | Post-War | 0.3% |
| 88. | Pu Ru | Modern Art | 0.3% |
| 89. | Zhu Da | Old Master | 0.3% |
| 90. | Donald Judd | Post-War | 0.3% |
| 91. | Tsuguharu Foujita | Modern Art | 0.3% |
| 92. | Tamara de Lempicka | Modern Art | 0.3% |
| 93. | Ernst Ludwig Kirchner | Modern Art | 0.3% |
| 94. | Sayed Haider Raza | Post-War | 0.3% |
| 95. | M.F. Husain | Modern Art | 0.3% |
| 96. | Sigmar Polke | Post-War | 0.3% |
| 97. | Francis Picabia | Modern Art | 0.3% |
| 98. | Max Ernst | Modern Art | 0.3% |
| 99. | Takashi Murakami | Contemporary Art | 0.3% |
| 100. | Nicolas Party | Contemporary Art | 0.3% |
Overall, the Artprice100 Index confirms its role in 2025 as a barometer of major art names, maintaining a structural link with stock markets while retaining autonomous dynamics in the short term.
As expert in digital marketing, Amelia began working in the fintech sector in 2014 after writing her thesis on Bitcoin technology. Previously author for several international crypto-related magazines and CMO at Eidoo. She is now the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cryptonomist and Econique.
She is also a marketing teacher at Digital Coach in Milan and she published a book about NFTs for the Italian publishing house Mondadori, while she is also helping artists and company to entering in the sector. As advisor, Amelia is also involved in metaverse-related project such as The Nemesis and OVER.
