Emerging from a global pandemic, the previously "crippled" affairs of the contemporary world came out in full force in 2023 after the World Health Organization announced that the Covid-19 disease "no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern."
This renewed energy is widely felt across industries, but it is especially enacted within the creative and cultural sectors despite this year's "antagonistic actors" in the outbreak of wars and the advent of increasingly uncontrollable technological innovation.
In celebration of this "underdog" effort exerted by the art and culture scene, we have compiled the top 5 stories within the industry in the past year right below.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - SEPTEMBER 25: Sotheby's Dubai unveils the ultimate masterpiece by Pablo Picasso, a monumental 193 portrait of Marie-Therese Walter, on September 25, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
A Slow Year for Auctions Despite Big Sales
In a slew of really expensive artworks sold in prestigious auctions over the year, only two have hit the difficult milestone of closing a nine-figure sale.
One of them was for a Picasso painting called "Femme à La Montre" which raked in the year's highest-priced transaction of over $139 million. Despite this, the piece only played second fiddle when it came to the most expensive Picasso work ever sold.
Speaking of second-place holders, the sale of the last-ever Gustav Klimt portrait followed the Picasso piece as the most expensive piece of art in 2023, selling for $108 million in a London auction which, in turn, bagged it the honor of being Europe's top sale when it comes to the final hammer price, CNN reports.
That said, overall sales across the industry revealed a relatively lower margin compared to last year's sales. In Christie's alone, the drop reportedly had a difference of over $2.2 billion.
Surprising Discoveries in Art
2023 saw many groundbreaking discoveries in the realm of design and art, with one recurring theme surrounding lucky thrifters cashing in a once-in-a-lifetime find.
One of these lucky thrifters was Tracy Donahue, an art enthusiast in New Hampshire, who chanced upon an incredibly rare NC Wyeth painting entitled "Ramona" priced only at $4 in a local Savers thrift shop.
That said, her jackpot story almost turned sour when an initial buyer for the piece flaked out of the six-digit sale. Luckily for Ms. Donahue, the sale eventually went through after an anonymous buyer bought it for what it was previously worth, and maybe even more, according to a New York Times report.
Earlier this month, another thrift shop find turned priceless art piece was yet again featured when a Goodwill-bought vase initially priced at $4 raked in a profit of over $107,000 after it was discovered that the glasswork was made by famed Italian sculptor Carlo Scarpa.
The Paralyzing Effect of the WGA Strikes
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 14: Members of the Hollywood actors SAG-AFTRA union walk a picket line with screenwriters outside of Paramount Studios on Day 2 of the actors' strike on July 14, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
In an almost four-month-long period this year, Hollywood has experienced its longest drought of production in recent memory due to the strikes of both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA calling for an increase in pay and residuals.
This movement was birthed during the age of streaming which saw said residuals shrink as streaming platforms skewed the conventional rates of royalties. In fact, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, actors only earned a median hourly rate of $27.73 in 2022 with a lot more talents left unpaid all year round.
Art Repatriated and Stolen
Another theme that reared its head time and time again this year was museums repatriating art suspected to be stolen and actual incidents where priceless pieces and artifacts had been stolen.
The Met makes up the bulk of 2023's repatriated art, one instance being the recent return of Thai and Cambodian artifacts comprising Khmer sculptures. Most of these artifacts featured Buddhist imagery and were widely celebrated by the recipient countries.
In Europe, the same thing occurred when a Dutch museum finally returned a trove of historical artifacts that previously belonged to a Crimean museum back to Kyiv, amidst the raging Ukraine-Russia war.
Debates of what artifacts were stolen and what were not also ballooned within Europe's art space, with the British Museum being the primary institution under fire. Such debates revolved around the Parthenon marbles that peaked into a diplomatic spat between Greece and the UK's prime ministers, with the latter even canceling a meeting originally set to discuss the issue.
London's British Museum didn't exhibit any increase in luck when it became part of an enormous theft scandal that left the institution with over 1,500 objects being considered stolen or missing.
AI Continues to Make Ripples Within the Creative Industry
In continuing the theme of thievery and art, one thing the industry wrestled continuously during this year was the problem presented by the new AI technologies, it even fanned the resulting conflict from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes even more.
That said, another major clapback that happened this year involved notable authors George R. R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, and John Grisham when they collectively submitted a class action lawsuit against the main proponent of AI technology, Open AI, which made the widely regarded "flag bearer" of the "AI apocalypse," "Chat GPT."
Martin and his contemporaries complained that the company used a cavalcade of copyrighted work, some of which belonged to the authors, in training their AI to be more "human-like." This didn't stop others from capitalizing on the technology's controversy, however, especially when a social media user used AI to "improve" a beloved piece of art in "Night Hawks."
