Some of the early YBA pieces have skyrocketed in value over the past 30 years. A case in point is Hirst’s degree-show medicine cabinet Bodies (1989), which prolific YBA collector Robert Tibbles bought for £600 in 1989 and sold for £1.3 million ($1.7 million) at Phillips last year. But for collectors who are just starting out, editions are an accessible entry point into the market.
Several editions by seminal YBAs sold for under £5,000 ($6,900) at Phillips’s editions sales in January: Emin’s artist book Exploration of the Soul (1994) sold for £4,410 (just over $6,000); Lucas’s photograph The Fag Show (2000) sold for £1,260 ($1,720); Hirst’s print Amniotic Fluid, from 40 Woodcut Spots (2011) sold for £4,788 (over $6,500).
According to Thornton, the broad nature of the YBA market makes it accessible for new collectors. “These are very well-established British artists’ names, and they work in a huge variety of media, so there are definitely very easy and accessible ways to start a YBA collection through looking at editions, printmaking, screen prints, and photography,” she said.