A weekly note on where the African art market moved, and what we make of it.

Ratings

One grade for an artist, a work, a gallery, or a collection

One letter grade covering how strong a market is, how easily the work sells, and how well value has held. Built for lending and credit decisions. Same underlying data as the index.

Where this stands

Ratings is in development, not yet available.

We are still writing the grading method and the bar a rating has to clear to stand up in a lending decision. Lawyers are involved. This page is what we are building, not something you can order today. If a rating would help, leave your details and we will come back to you when it is live.

What it covers

One grade, applied at four levels.

Artist

How strong the artist's market is overall: how established it is, how steadily work trades, how value has held across cycles.

Artwork

One specific work, taking its medium, period, provenance, and condition into account alongside the artist's market.

Gallery

A gallery's programme: the depth of the roster, the exhibition and sales record, how represented artists have done.

Portfolio

A collection as a whole: how concentrated it is, how liquid, and how its value would be expected to hold together.

How a grade is built

The valuation and the grade are separate steps, on purpose.
  1. 1. Value first, from the index. The valuation under a grade comes from the same published index method as everything else here. It does not change based on who asks for the rating.
  2. 2. Grade on top. The grade is then applied on top of that fixed valuation, against written criteria: liquidity, market depth, price stability. It is never folded into the value.
  3. 3. Curator-reviewed. A person checks every grade before it goes out, the same review every published figure here gets.

Register interest

Tell us what you would want rated, and why. We will be in touch as Ratings comes online.