Picasso named top-selling artist of 2005

Cubist master Pablo Picasso has once again topped a list of the most traded artists in the past year.

Pop artist Andy Warhol took over the No. 2 positionfrom French Impressionist Claude Monet in the annual list compiled by Artprice.com, a French art market data tracking firm.

The sale of Picasso's Les femmes d'Alger for $16.6 million US topped a banner year in 2005, with collectors paying $153.2 million US overall for the 1,409 Picasso works sold at auction last year.

Though no Picasso sale has approached the $93 million US paid for his Garon la Pipe in 2004, that record encouraged a 20-per-cent increase in prices for theartist's work,Artprice said.

Prices for Warhol's work rose21 per cent last year and, as demand for the U.S. pop artist grows, more collectors are being tempted to sell their pieces. The 660 Warhol lots that crossed the auction block in 2005 sold for about $86.7 million US.

While Monet remains popular for art buyers, the market appears to be "drying up," Artprice said, with only 22 works changing hands in 2005 (albeit for a total of $61.5 million US).

New interest in an Old Master allowedAntonio Canal Canaletto to rocket from 239th place in 2004 to a fourth place finish in 2005.

In a year of high profile sales, the 18th century Venetian artist had the biggest sale of the year when his painting View of theGrand Canal from Palazzo Balbi sold for 16.6 million ($28.9 million US) last July. The work was once owned by Sir Robert Walpole, Britain's first prime minister.

Overall, 18 Canalettossold for $55.5 million US at auction.

Rounding out the top 10 list are Mark Rothko, Marc Chagall, Willem de Kooning, Fernand Lger, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Lucian Freud.

Artprice published the list as part of its look at art market trends for 2005. The firm also reported that prices at fine art auctions rose 10 per cent from the previous year, with total sales of about $4.2 billion US. The top art auctionmarkets were New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong.