There’s never been a better time to buy Australian art
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Josh Blanket - 15/10/2019
KAB Gallery is proud of our place in the Australian art market, representing some of Australia’s best known and most successful collectable artists. As we enter our 7th year it’s amazing to look back at how demand for our artist’s work has increased over the last few years – both within Australia but more interestingly throughout the world. Initially the majority of our clients were based in Australia, but now we send so much great Australian art all around the world each week. KAB Gallery is positioned as a leading Australian art exporter. We have developed some amazing systems, processes and relationships to make buying art as quick and easy as possible for our international clients.
Another thing has changed remarkably over the last seven years. And while it’s not so great for many Australian businesses, it is fantastic for our overseas art buyers!
When we opened in September 2013 the official foreign exchange rate meant USD$1 was worth AUD$1.06. In other words a AUD$5,000 painting was around USD$4,715. Today the exchange rate is hovering around AUD$1.49. So in other words the AUD$5,000 painting now converts to approx USD$3,390 – a massive saving of USD$1,325. Of course shipping costs also paid in AUD have also decreased relative to USD.
While the USD conversion has changed the most markedly during this period, changes in the GBP (British Pound), EUR (Euro), HKD (Hong Kong Dollar), AED (Emirati Dirham), and SGD (Singapore Dollar) amongst others have also seen Australian art become more affordable when converted to our customer’s local currency.
| Currency | AUD$1,000 Australian Art (as at 15th Oct 2019) |
AUD$5,000 Australian Art (as at 15th Oct 2019) |
AUD$8,000 Australian Art (as at 15th Oct 2019) |
| USD | $680 | $3,390 | $5,420 |
| GBP | £540 | £2,690 | £4,300 |
| EUR | €615 | €3,080 | €4,915 |
| HKD | $5,315 | $26,580 | $42,525 |
| AED | د.إ2,490 | د.إ12,445 | د.إ19,910 |
| SGD | $930 | $4,640 | $7,420 |
There has never been a better time to buy great Australian art!
What does this all mean for our many overseas based clients? Either the Australian art you love is now more affordable, or you can now upsize your KAB Gallery purchase to fill a larger space. Either way it’s a massive win for our clients, and goes to show again that purchasing Australian art is currently the smart move.
Josh Blanket
Director & Curator - KAB Gallery
Josh is a keen art collector himself and has a particular interest in contemporary and abstract art. His vision for KAB Gallery is to open the physical gallery space to the online dimension for the 21st century art buyer.
Josh combines his art market experience and knowledge of the contemporary art market to make KAB Gallery available to all audiences via the digital medium.
