The same work sold twice — who it happens to most under 50
Arthur ranks Ultra Contemporary artists by repeat auction sales and median appreciation to show market depth and returns.
Repeat sales, the same physical work selling twice at auction, is one of the most honest signals in the market. It can't be staged. Either a picture comes back and finds a new buyer, or it doesn't. When it happens again and again for one artist, it tells you something rare for a young name: there's a real, tested market for the work, not just a primary-sale waiting list.
Here are the five Ultra Contemporary artists, born after 1974, with the most repeat sales in Arthur right now, and, as a reference, how the same works have appreciated between sales, median CAGR:
- Aboudia — 45 repeat sales · 3.9%
- Jonas Wood — 44 · −0.7%
- Ayako Rokkaku — 37 · 35.4%
- Shara Hughes — 27 · 35.4%
- Hernan Bas — 27 · 2.5%
Some context.
Depth and appreciation are two different things, and this list separates them cleanly. Aboudia and Jonas Wood have the most-tested markets here; their works have come back to auction more than forty times each. That's unusual for artists barely into their forties. But depth doesn't guarantee a return: Wood's resale CAGR sits essentially flat, meaning the market is active but fully priced.
Rokkaku and Hughes give you both: 35%+ annual appreciation on works that are already circulating heavily. An active market that's also still rewarding the people holding the work is the rarer, more interesting signal.
The takeaway: repeat-sale volume tells you a market exists. The appreciation figure tells you whether it's paying. Read them together; one without the other only gives you half the picture.
Pull it yourself: Analytics → Artists → Repeat Sales, then Filter → Period → Ultra Contemporary.
