Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti Tries to Pour Cold Water on the Frieze London vs. Art Basel Paris Debate

October 23, 2024

With Frieze London and Art Basel Paris finally in the rear-view mirror, you’d be forgiven for being tired of the relentless London vs. Paris debate that has dominated art world conversations. In the end, both fairs did well, which somewhat stifled the increasingly boring narrative. In fact, it’s become so tedious that Christie’s CEO, Guillaume Cerutti, felt obliged to try and put the argument to bed by penning an op-ed in The Art Newspaper calling it a “non-troversy.”

“I understand the appeal of this binary debate, allowing everyone to share their views,” Cerutti writes. “However, an analysis of the data leads us to a different conclusion: the rivalry between London and Paris is largely a false debate—a ‘nontroversy’—for three main reasons.”

His trio of reasons, laid out in subheads, are: “Paris is progressing, but London still leads”; “A negative-sum game for Europe”; and “More complementary than competitive.”

For the first, Cerutti references economist Clare McAndrew’s annual art market reports for Tefaf and Art Basel. He writes that they confirm “an erosion of the UK’s share of the global art market, which fell from 21 percent between 2016 and 2020 to 17 percent between 2021 and 2023, while France’s share slightly increased, from 7 percent to 8 percent.” He says that the trend can be put down to Brexit for complicating the sale of works from Europe in London.

“However, the erosion of the UK’s market share began well before Brexit, as early as the mid-2000s,” Cerutti argues. “Moreover, there has not been a radical shift in the hierarchy of market centres, as there was between 2007 and 2010, when China overtook the UK. London remains the dominant marketplace in Europe in terms of transaction value.”

He adds that “the most expensive modern or contemporary works continue to be sold at auction in London,” which “continues to maintain its reputation as an international platform for high-value transactions.”

For his second point, Christie’s CEO says the real issue is not simply London vs. Paris, “but the decline of all European centres in the face of American dominance and the rise of Asia.” He quotes some stats from Christie’s Impressionist, Modern and contemporary art auctions in London and Paris, which now only account for a quarter of global annual sales, compared to 40 percent ten years ago.

And finally, Cerutti echoes the cookie cutter answer that most people in positions of art world power give when asked if Paris is muscling in on London’s game – that “the cities are more complimentary than competitive.”

“With the exception of certain categories where there is real competition, such as Modern art, each city retains its specific strengths,” he concludes. “London remains essential for Old Masters (excluding French paintings), Impressionism, antiquities, Islamic art and Modern and contemporary Arab art. Paris, on the other hand, is the world capital of African and Oceanic art and dominates Europe in Old Master drawings, Asian art and design… Each city has its unique strengths. Few collectors or art lovers favour one over the other. The success of Frieze, followed this year by Art Basel Paris, underscores this point: both fairs excelled presenting complementary rather than competing propositions, attracting collectors and art overs from all over the world.”