Editor’s Note
This analysis highlights the resilience of the art market in 2022, which achieved historic sales despite global economic and geopolitical headwinds. The results underscore the sector’s unique dynamics, where high-value collectibles often operate independently of broader financial trends.
As is the case every year, auction houses release their annual results just before Christmas. 2022 was another excellent vintage for art and collectible sales, even though the figures have never been so difficult to dissect…
Inflation and the war in Ukraine had no impact on auction sales! Major auction houses operating in France are announcing historic results for 2022. While the increases are certainly less high than in 2021, when auctions restarted after the Covid slowdown, they still average between 10% and 20%. On the other hand, the results have never been so difficult to understand and decipher. This is due to two unprecedented situations: firstly, the acquisition of Cornette de Saint Cyr by Bonhams last June, and secondly, the inclusion in the Millon group’s figure of the proceeds from sales it conducts for the Crédit Municipal de Paris (CMP).
In the case of Bonhams and Cornette de Saint Cyr, combining their results for the first half of the year raises questions, but since we cannot produce a semester-by-semester Top 10 at year’s end, we have accepted it. This allows us, by comparing with their combined 2021 results, to show a percentage progression for this “new” auction house. It is excellent, at +51%, notably due to the very fine Asian art collections the duo secured in 2022.
The second unprecedented situation: the Millon group, via its judicial branch titled “19 GB”, is now the sole partner of the Crédit Municipal and, as such, has integrated the €20M achieved with the CMP into its “art sold product”. In the case of joint sales, our policy has always been clear: we try to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, meaning to attribute to the two concerned entities the sums actually received after redistribution. Because it would be unfair to grant one the entire benefit of sales for which the objects were found by the other. Based on information gathered, it seems that about 25% of the sums raised by these sales would have fallen into Millon’s coffers. Even though this option is debatable, it is therefore the figure of €5M that we have retained.
Here are the figures we have as of December 23, which will likely be refined in the following hours or days:
1 Christie’s 492 M€ +20% (excluding private sales)
2 Sotheby’s 449 M€ +6% (excluding the €151M from private sales)
3 Artcurial 216.5 M€ +28% (Excluding private sales and charity sales, but including Toulouse and the €27.8M from Monaco)
4 Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr 92.2 M€ +51% (Paris + Monaco, but excluding the €34.5M from Brussels. The increase is calculated based on the combined results of the two entities in 2021, namely €61.3M)
5 Aguttes 86.5 M€ +11.6%
6 Millon 78.4 M€ +6% (Paris + Nice + 25% of the €20M achieved with the Crédit Municipal de Paris, but excluding charity sales and the €8M from Brussels)
7 Ader 52 M€ +30%
8 Piasa 44 M€ +10% (excluding the €3M from Brussels)
9 Osenat 40.7 M€ +11.5% (Fontainebleau + Versailles)
10 Tajan 33.3 M€ –12%
*Sales of “art and collectibles” in France, buyer’s premiums included