Editor’s Note
This article outlines the headwinds facing the global art market in 2024, attributing a significant downturn in auction activity to geopolitical tensions and political uncertainty. It highlights the particular strain on galleries and art fairs, suggesting a cautious industry in a holding pattern.
The year 2024 was not a good vintage for most auction houses. The cause: international conflicts and electoral uncertainties in the United States and France, which led to a certain wait-and-see attitude from potential sellers of important works.
For over a year now, the art market has been struggling. Galleries are suffering, especially small and medium-sized ones, which cannot hold out indefinitely. Art fairs are affected by the general gloom and depend on the arrival, or not, of very wealthy clients who dictate the market’s fortunes. And auction houses, despite the internationalization of their buyer base—accelerated by the digitalization of communication and sales themselves—are struggling to find beautiful works, the famous “flagships” that drive the market upward. We are indeed witnessing a pendulum swing. The two years following the peak of the Covid pandemic, 2021 and 2022, had recorded highs because sales suspended during lockdowns were all scheduled simultaneously. Marked by the Israeli conflict, 2023 was the year of “coming back down to earth.” Therefore, 2024 was very difficult.
Christie’s World announces a total sold turnover of $5.77 billion, a contraction of 6%. And while the figure of €382 million for its French branch is up 23% and allows the house to climb back to the top step of the hexagonal podium, this is only a partial recovery from the 36% drop recorded the previous year. The same scenario for Aguttes, which shows +23% including Brussels and +15% limited to France, but compared to a bad year 2023 (-45%). In our French Top Ten, Sotheby’s, Artcurial, Bonhams, Ader, and Tajan are down.
However, some good results should be noted, due to an energetic development strategy. Those of the Millon house, which is expanding internationally and holding steady in France, even without counting the sales it conducts for the Crédit Municipal. And those of Osenat, which, in addition to its historic base in Fontainebleau, has developed a Versailles house and opened a salesroom in Paris.
If it is difficult to “source” major works, diversification is necessary. This is what the houses are doing, some launching new specialties (Sports, collectible spirits, even real estate…), others betting on luxury, like Sotheby’s, where part of the first floor of its new Paris premises is dedicated to designer bags, jewelry, and watches, fetish objects for millennials.
But one of the notable facts of the year is the boom in private sales, where the auction house acts as an intermediary and the price remains confidential. And their variant, fixed-price sales, where the price is displayed in a configuration resembling that of galleries or luxury boutiques. This is notably the case at Sotheby’s, which considers that offering Hermès bags or Rolexes “to take away” allows their clients, especially the young and new ones, to leave with the object of their dreams without waiting for scheduled sales weeks or months later.
The major houses communicate about their private sales. Christie’s World announces they totaled $1.5 billion this year, a figure up 41%. Meanwhile, Sotheby’s released the figure for its private sales in France: no less than €75.5 million, more than a quarter of its auction activity. The 100% French houses practice private sales much more moderately: 8.5% of sold turnover in 2023, and we await the 2024 figure.
To not end on too negative a note, let’s highlight that year-end sales benefited from a certain upturn. And on the Drouot side, too quickly written off, the results are rather good. The Parisian auction house is even attracting new young auctioneers, who often develop niche specialties.
Sales of “art and collectibles” in France, buyer’s premiums included:
Christie’s: 382 M€ ▲ +23% (excluding private sales)
Sotheby’s: 287 M€ ▼ -31% (excluding the €75.5M from private sales)
Artcurial: 149.1 M€ ▼ -16% (Excluding private sales, the €3M from Morocco, the €19M from Monaco, and the €15.5M achieved in Switzerland with Beurret Bailly Widmer)
Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr: 97.7 M€ -8.7%
Millon: 71.3 M€ ▲ +2% (Paris + Nice, but excluding the €34.7M from Milan and sales conducted with the Crédit Municipal de Paris)
Piasa: 61 M€ ▲ +9% (Excluding the €4M from Brussels)
Aguttes: 54.7 M€ ▲ +15% (excluding the €4M from cars sold in Brussels)
Osenat: 50.3 M€ ▲ +25% (Fontainebleau + Versailles + Paris, with 50% of Napoleon’s pistols sold for €1.7M with Rossini)
Ader: 47 M€ ▼ -16% (excluding Ader Entreprises et Patrimoine)
Tajan: 28.5 M€ ▼ -20%
