Is Arte Povera less valuable than before

Is Arte Povera less valuable than before?

[06 Nov 2024]

While the Pinault Foundation is currently celebrating Arte Povera with a masterful exhibition, Artprice looks at contrasting developments in its market, where auction records have been conspicuous by their absence for more than a decade. Has Arte Povera been devalued? and what are its artists worth today?

Nearly a decade ago, key Arte Povera works - by artists like Giovanni Anselmo and Luciano Fabro - reached unprecedented auction room highs amidst a wave of renewed interest in the movement. Between 2014 and 2015, in a slightly unusual legislative context, works by Italian artists associated with the 1960s Arte Povera movement suddenly reached new historic valuations. Artprice takes a closer look at that moment of Italian enthusiasm and digs into the economic reality of the current market, asking: what is Arte Povera worth today?

Content

Can we expect more records?
A new era of quiet stability
What makes Arte Povera valuable?

Can we expect more records?

Ten years ago, a monumental Achrome from the 1950s by Piero Manzoni, a pioneering figure of the Arte Povera movement, fetched a sensational result above $20 million at Sotheby's, doubling its high estimate. That unexpected record put Arte Povera in the limelight and marked the beginning of a spike in prices: between 2014 and 2015, more than 70% of the movement's artists reached their current auction records. In 2014, the auction market paid $106 million for works by the movement's artists, four times higher than last year's total. So what was behind the spike?

Arte Povera: turnover at auction

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2014-2015: a golden moment…

2014-2015 was a good time for the global art market in general, with lots of 7- and 8-digit art auction results being hammered around the world. For the Arte Povera movement, the period was particularly fruitful, with prices for its best works suddenly accelerating.

The $20 million-plus result for Piero Manzoni's Achrome rekindled interest in works from the radical movement and it was followed by new records for Jannis Kounellis and Mario Merz at $2 million and $1.7 million respectively. In 2015, a new record for a work by Giovanni Anselmo was hammered at $6.4 million. Indeed, 70% of the movement's artists reached new heights that have not been equalled since. Only Alighiero Boetti has reached a new auction record since then, with a result at $8.8 million two years ago.

1. Piero MANZONI (1933-1963) $20.2 million (in 2014)
2. Alighiero BOETTI (1940-1994) $8.8 million (in 2022)
3. Giovanni ANSELMO (1934-2023) $6.4 million (in 2015)
4. Michelangelo PISTOLETTO (1933) $4.8 million (in 2017)
5. Luciano FABRO (1936-2007) $4.2 million (in 2015)
6. Pino PASCALI (1935-1968) $3.3 million (in 2016)
7. Jannis KOUNELLIS (1936-2017) $2 million (in 2014)
8. Mario MERZ (1925-2003) $1.7 million (in 2014)
9. Giuseppe PENONE (1947) $1.3 million (in 2015)
10. Giulio PAOLINI (1940) $629,000 (in 2015)
11. Pier Paolo CALZOLARI (1943) $725,000 (in 2015)
12. Gilberto ZORIO (1944) $358,000 (in 2016)
13. Marisa MERZ (1931-2019) $339,000 (in 2014)

What sparked the spike?
Beyond the general dynamics of the market, a change in Italian law risked banning the best Arte Povera works from being exported outside Italy. This threat appears to have prompted a number of international collectors and dealers to redouble their efforts to acquire these works before they became 'inaccessible'. The result was a spike in competition that inflated prices during a period that was both short and unforgettable for the Arte Povera market.

Read : Art Market report 2014

Italy's threat to retain its treasures spiked the global market

The threat of seeing Arte Povera masterpieces definitively confined in Italy undoubtedly fueled the price peak. The most sought-after pieces by Manzoni, Anselmo and Pistoletto from the 1950s and 1960s capture the essence of this revolutionary movement and they fascinate collectors. However, as these works risked being targeted by Italian regulations prohibiting the export of artworks over 50 years old, there was a surge in demand.

Works from the most interesting period of Arte Povera risked disappearing from the international market and this perspective prompted collectors to act with urgency, propelling prices into unexpected spheres around the world, including in London and New York where the most impressive new records were hammered.

Although Italian legislation has since been relaxed, the export authorization process remains cumbersome, restricting the circulation of these historic works. As a result the most popular pieces of Arte Povera - works that were created in the movement's radical early days - are increasingly rare on the global market.

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Piero MANZONI (1933-1963), Line (1959)
Drawing, 33.5 x 23.8 cm
De Vuyst, Lokeren, Belgium, October 19, 2024
$10,870 (hammer price)

A new era of quiet stability

Nevertheless, since that moment of anticipative urgency, the high-end market for Arte Povera has clearly deflated. For example, recently, another superb Achrome (1958-1959) by Manzoni sold for just $3.2 million at Christie's in Paris, although it would probably have fetched double that in 2014. Today's lower prices have opened the door to a more accessible offer attracting a wider audience: last year, 485 Arte Povera works changed hands at auction versus 437 in 2014.

Among the recent results, in mid-October, Christie's Paris sold a leather and terracotta sculpture (Stella, 1978) by Gilberto Zorio for $48,000. A large clay drawing by Mario Merz, sold for $82,000, and a graphite print by Giuseppe Penone reached a high estimate of $130,000. Belgium's De Vuyst auction house also sold a small drawing by Piero Manzoni at its minimum price, under $11,000.

Arte Povera is still popular despite lower prices

However, if we look at the unsold rates, we see a safer and healthier market: Gilberto Zorio, once had an unsold rate of 54%; now it has stabilized to just 33%. Mario Merz and Giuseppe Penone have both posted unsold rates below 30%, while the movement's most sought-after artists, Alighiero Boetti, Piero Manzoni and Pier Paolo Calzolari, have posted unsold rates below 20%. These figures suggest the modest resilience of Arte Povera, whose raw charm has clearly not lost its appeal.

Pier Paolo Calzolari's unsold rate is significantly lower than during the peak:

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Indeed, the decline in prices does not appear to have weakened the appeal of Arte Povera, and the movement's artists continue to occupy a key position in the conceptual and artistic history of the 20th century. Alighiero Boetti, the movement's most prominent artist, is currently its top-selling artist with around a hundred works selling each year between the United States, the UK and Europe. Demand for his creations, and those of his peers, appears to be firmly anchored and is likely to persist for at least the next decade.

Read: Alighiero Boetti (2014)

What makes Arte Povera valuable

Born from a profound rejection of consumer society, Italy's Arte Povera rocked the art world in the 1960s. The movement transformed raw and natural materials into works of art. Eschewing precious works on pedestals, artists like Giuseppe Penone and Michelangelo Pistoletto produced visual experiences where the objects and elements became invitations to reevaluate our relationship with the world.

Wood, burlap, waste… in their hands, the ordinary was transformed into the extraordinary, creating humble yet dynamic icons. Distant from academic theory, Arte Povera advocated an aesthetic of simplicity and authenticity and it represented an alternative to the American art of that era. More than an art movement, it was a call to everyone to free themselves from the dictates of the dominant culture and to embrace an art that was both raw and alive.

With its exhibition Arte Povera, the Pinault Foundation has revived the splendor of this pioneering movement, while tracing new connections to other Contemporary artists. Indeed, the exhibition includes work by thirteen major artists who clearly express the spirit of the movement. "Thirteen artists, whose practices constitute a form of resonance with Arte Povera and extend its heritage: from David Hammons, William Kentridge, Jimmie Durham, Anna Boghiguian in the 1980s, to Pierre Huyghe, Grazia Toderi, Adrián Villar Rojas in the 1990s, and Mario Garcia Torres, Renato Leotta, Agnieszka Kurant, Otobong Nkanga, Theaster Gates and D Harding in the 2000s. Each, in their own way, questions, activates and pursues Arte Povera's legacy."

By revisiting the fundamentals of Arte Povera, this exhibition breathes new life into its audacity, while showing how it still inspires some of the great names in Contemporary art.

Exhibition "Arte Povera"
Paris, Bourse du Commerce, until January 20, 2025

Arte Povera - Italian art - Art auctions - Contemporary art - Fondation Pinault - Art collectors