Looking at Romania’s evolution on the international art scene, 2014 and 2015 are filled with accomplishments. Probably most acclaimed is Adrian Ghenie’s success on the international market. The young Romanian artist has entered the international league of elite artists, in July 2014 celebrating his first sale above EUR 1 mil., a price level he has confirmed and widely outperformed ever since, fuelled also by a successful representation at the Venice Biennale in 2015.

Nevertheless, local public art market results do not entirely mirror these developments. 2014 and 2015 registered the first cool down at Romanian art auctions since the fall of communism. While the middle auction market has become more solid, the trophy works lack behind previous price expectations. On the bright side, this contraction might prove a blessing in disguise, as it keeps the Romanian market away from overheating and ensures that in the long run prices grow at a grounded, sustainable rate, with periods of healthy price-adjusting fluctuations around the upward trend.

Speaking of the long term, there are positive signs, with more and more players interested in the Romanian art market. In 2016-2017 we are looking forward to the imminent opening of an important private museum for recent Romanian art, the continuation and expansion of already established international events like Art Safari Bucharest and Art Encounters Timișoara, the inclusion of Romania in the first edition of My Art Guide East Central Europe, but also the more and more frequent visits of acquisition committees from international museums like Tate Modern or Beelden aan Zee, lured by the increased visibility of Romanian contemporary art.

The surprise of the art market in 2013 was contemporary art, with sales in national art auctions 10% higher than in 2012 (approx. EUR 1.4 million), new author records and notable international successes. But despite significant growth in the last 3 years, the Romanian contemporary art market is still in the process of gradual awareness and appreciation, far from the potential reached by countries in the region such as Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and so on.

In the top 10 transactions in the Romanian art market in 2013, whose total amount amounts to EUR 1.237,000 (8% more than the total value of the top 10 transactions in 2012), in addition to the great masters, veterans of records in the Romanian art market (Grigorescu, Andreescu, Luchian and Tonitza, who each occupy several positions in the ranking), for the first time there is the vanguardist Victor Brauner, with the work "Poetul Geo Bogza arată capului său peisajul cu sonde" ("Poet Geo Bogza shows his head the landscape with boreholes"). The painting was sold for EUR 120.000 at the Artmark auction in February 2013.