As you might have heard once or a thousand times, it’s been a humbling year or so in the art market. Naturally, that economic climate has had downstream consequences for the adjacent businesses that support the market and its actors, including Artnet, the German auction database, news site, and sales brokerage business. Within the art industry, the brand remains very powerful, possibly as esteemed among insiders as Sotheby’s and Christie’s are with the general public. But according to a newly released financial report, the company has struggled, losing about $1 million in 2023—a reversal from a small net profit the year before—due in part to declining revenue in its auction and private sales business. Also buried within the report, Artnet revealed it took loans totaling approximately $2 million from a third party, a senior executive, and the former C.E.O., presumably to cover operating losses.
On one level, Artnet held its own amid a downturn, only losing 4 percent of the previous year’s topline revenue. “2023 was a difficult year for us and the entire art market,” C.E.O. Jacob Pabst wrote in a letter accompanying the financial report. “As a result, sales at the major auction houses plummeted, as did our own.” Pabst also previewed a significant restructuring program. “The cost reduction measures have already become evident in 2023, with savings of over 1.5 million USD,” he wrote, “to which an additional 3.5 million USD will be added this year. In 2025, these measures will then fully take effect, resulting in savings of nearly 6 million USD.” For a company that does around $25 million in revenue, cost savings of that magnitude would be a real achievement.
