The art market, 25 years ago and now (by Axios)

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

2023: “Any fairly nice painting by a mid-career artist [without massive institutional support] is now around $300,000," art adviser Sibylle Rochat told Artnet's Naomi Rea this week. "Young artists with a bio the size of a stamp are now $30,000 to $50,000."

1997: "When I was an art dealer, any biggish work of art was worth $500. Any littlish work of art was worth $200," wrote the late art critic Dave Hickey in his essay collection "Air Guitar." "Today, a biggish work is worth $1,000 and a littlish work is worth $300."

Why it matters: Most of today's art world believes on some level that cheap work — paintings that sell for a few hundred dollars, say — isn't serious.

• It might be fine decorating the walls of a coffee shop, but the idea of collecting such work is befuddling and quixotic. (The only exception: If you're extremely rich and your idiosyncratic collection also includes priceless works by the likes of Frida Kahlo.)

The big picture: Art galleries have been in grow-or-die mode for many years now. Artists at small galleries either go nowhere, or else they get buzz and leave for a large gallery boasting a global network of high-net-worth collectors. Either way, the small gallery struggles.

The bottom line: As the art world goes global, what gets lost is local art dealers selling the work of local artists to local middle-class doctors and lawyers.

• As a result, even if the total amount of money in the art world is going up, driven by ever-higher prices for a handful of superstar artists, the number of artists the art world can support could well be dropping fast, along with the number of collectors.