Faith in wall-candy proved stronger than trust in the stock market last year, as art outperformed the US and UK benchmark indices by at least nine percentage points – for the second year running.

Faith in wall-candy proved stronger than trust in the stock market last year, as art outperformed the US and UK benchmark indices
by at least nine percentage points – for the second year running.

According to the Mei Moses World All Art Index, which measures London and New York repeat art auction prices, values grew 10.2 per
cent last year compared with the S&P500 and the FTSE All Shares indices,
which ended the year flat to slightly down.

Prices were boosted by growing Chinese demand and
once-in-a-lifetime auctions, according to the firm. 

Chinese work saw some of the strongest growth,
with returns from traditional Chinese art soaring 20.6 per cent last year.

Impressionist and modern art yielded a return of
14 per cent, postwar and contemporary art grew 6.4 per cent, and Old Master and
19th century art rose 4.8 per cent.

Some of the most iconic pieces included the sale
of Andy Warhol’s “Dollar Sign”, which sold at a Sotheby’s New York auction for just shy of $700,000, double the estimate. Warhol’s “Liz#5” and “Flowers” were snapped up
in May for $27 million and $8.1 million respectively.

Meanwhile, Roy Lichtenstein’s painting “I Can See
The Whole Room...and There’s Nobody in It!” set a new auction record for the
artist when it sold at Christie’s in November for $43 million – reportedly
achieving a $40 million profit.

The index’s 10.2 per cent growth followed a 16.6
per cent rise 2010, bringing the art market above its 23.5 per cent post-Lehman slump
in 2009.