Editor’s Note
This analysis provides a crucial guide for collectors and professionals by comparing 13 major auction price databases and art indices. Understanding their methodologies and coverage is essential for accurate art valuation and market insight.
13 price databases for auction results compared. ᐅ How to determine & compare the price for a work of art.
Determining the price for a work of art is not easy. So-called price databases for auction results can be helpful. About 9 years ago, the first article by Artinfo24 on the topic of “Auction Results & Price Databases for Artworks” was published. So it’s high time for a revision.
Those who want to buy or sell art generally inform themselves about the price of artworks. One possibility and often-used tool is auction results. In recent years, several providers have established themselves in the market for art price databases, or Art Price Indices and Databases, as it’s called in “Neudeutsch”. The research and output of auction results were done in different ways. While there used to be book/print and CD-ROM products to determine auction results for artworks, online price databases dominate today.
Other providers are so-called live auction platforms. These gather auctions from a wide variety of auction houses. In addition to live bidding, these platforms also collect the auction results of the sales and then offer them to the user. Providers here are, for example, invaluable.com or in Germany also lot-tissimo. A relatively new provider is Barnebys. The website lists worldwide auction dates and links directly to the individual lots of the auction houses and also collects the hammer prices (auction results) of the individual sales.
A third source is the databases of the auction houses themselves. Mostly, these are available to the user free of charge. Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Phillips, but also German auction houses like Ketterer Kunst, Van Ham, Nagel, or Auctionata have online databases of their auction results.
German providers do not exactly shine with large data stocks. For example, the somewhat “old-fashioned” Mageda database offers around 31,000 artist entries with corresponding paid reports on paintings, watercolors, and drawings. The Weltkunst Verlag used to publish annual summaries in book and CD-ROM form (from about 2000 auctions). This offer seems to no longer exist and was therefore no longer considered by us.
# | Provider | Offer & Service
— | — | —
1 | Arcadja | Offers around 4 million auction results from approx. 200,000 artists.
2 | Artnet | More than 10 million auction results (since 1985) from more than 320,000 artists.
3 | Artprice | Offers approx. 25 million auction results from around 405,000 artists (partly with images).
4 | Artsalesindex | Offers around 6 million auction results from over 500,000 artists.
5 | ArtTactic | Is not a price database, but offers trend and analysis reports on artists, auctions & topics.
6 | Artvalue | Offers around 4.8 million auction prices for Fine Art, Jewelry, Decorative Art, Antiques, Asian Art, Watches, and other categories.
7 | askART | Offers auction results (since 1987) from approx. 300,000 artists, plus analysis charts & graphics.
8 | Barnebys | Offers around 18 million auction results, partly with images.
9 | Findartinfo | Approx. 3.7 million auction results (partly with images) from nearly 370,000 artists.
10 | invaluable | Offers over 50 million auction results for Fine Art, Jewelry, Decorative Art, Antiques, and Asian Art.
11 | Lot-Tissimo | Access to 3 million sold lots from art, decorative arts, watches & jewelry.
12 | Mageda | Approx. 31,000 artists and 296,000 image info entries in the database.
13 | MutualArt | Offers over 1 million auction results from approx. 270,000 artists.
All major providers offer the possibility to buy day passes. With these, you can use the database for 24 hours. The access is supplemented by concluding a monthly or annual subscription. However, there are also providers like Barnebys or Artvalue (upon registration) where the research is free of charge. However, the presentation of data by major providers like Artprice, Artnet, or the Art Sales Index is much better and is often supplemented by helpful indices.
