Editor’s Note
Christie’s reports a remarkably stable first half, with auction sales of €1.8 billion nearly matching last year’s figure. As President Bonnie Brennan notes, key performance indicators remain solid, reflecting resilience in the art market.
Christie’s generated €1.8 billion ($2.1 billion) in auction sales in the first half of this year. This figure is remarkably close to that of the same period last year, with sales volume declining by only 1%. Even the sell-through rate is similar (88% this semester compared to 87% in 2024)!
Despite a context of general slowdown and market contraction, a composition by Piet Mondrian, from the Leonard & Louise Riggio Collection, sold at Christie’s in New York for $47.6 million, making it the highest-priced lot of the semester worldwide. With a total of $272 million, this same collection
Christie’s notes. In total, the house sold seven of the ten most expensive artworks of the period, including the top four. Another surge, this time in the Old Masters field, saw a record for Canaletto achieved in London on July 1st when the masterpiece Il ritorno del Bucintoro al molo nel giorno dell’Ascensione, depicting the famous Doge’s boat used for water parades, fetched $43.9 million.
With a total of nearly $1.3 billion, a figure identical to 2024, 20th and 21st-century art retains the lion’s share. However, it is noteworthy that only the luxury sector (+16%, excluding Gooding Christie’s automobile sales, a new area for the auction house) – Christie’s records 25% growth for jewelry – and the “Old Masters” sector (+15%), thanks to the Canaletto record, are on the rise.