Every year Artprice compiles a ranking of artists based on the total revenue generated by public sales of each artist's work, with Pablo Picasso invariably taking the number one position on the market podium. Not so in 2007: after nearly 10 years, the champion of modern art has been dethroned by the guru of Pop art, Andy Warhol. Second in 2006, Warhol became the global market leader in 2007.
More than just one name replacing another, this 'event' reflects a veritable sea-change in the auction world. While in the 1990s the very pinnacle of the art market belonged to the impressionists, particularly Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet, and then, after 2000, to the moderns with Pablo Picasso and Gustave Klimt, today, and possibly for some time to come, the market has hoisted contemporary art to the summit of the pyramid.

In 2006, the only members of the contemporary segment among the top 10 artists were Warhol, Lichtenstein and Willem de Kooning, representing Pop art and American abstract expressionism. In 2007, the contemporary presence considerably broadened with the arrival of Francis Bacon, Mark Rothko and Jean-Michel Basquiat. With no major masterpieces coming to auction during the year, both Gustave Klimt and Egon Schiele have slipped out of the top 10.
In 2007, total revenue generated by the top 10 artists amounted to more than USD 1.8 billion, a figure representing an increase of over 50% compared with the previous year! This spectacular rise was driven essentially by Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, whose works - alone - fetched USD 400 million more than in 2006! Prices have rocketed and the entry ticket to the Top 10 has shot up by 44.8% versus 2006: in concrete terms, this means that in 2007, each artist had to generate at least USD 86 million to get into the Top 10 compared with only USD 59 million the previous year.