In this article, the Economist finds a disparity between the price of art works by men and works by women.
At a recent auction at Christie’s which brought in $388 million, for example, 20% of works were by women, but less than 5% of total profits came from those works. The average price of the ten most expensive works by men sold was over $50 million, while that number was closer to $5 million for those by women.
A study of ArtNet data suggested that “the prospects for women are slowly improving.” This may be due to the diversity of works by women or the fact that of the top-ten men, only two are living, while of the top-ten women, five are still working.
Either way, art dealer Iwan Wirth says, “women artists are the bargain of our time.”
[This entry was drafted with the assistance of Nicole Dornbusch].