Art MarketArun KakarDec 30, 2024 2:00PMCourtesy of Sotheby’s. Cyberattacks, blockbuster lawsuits, bananas—there’s no question that 2024 has been an eventful year in the auction market. At the top end, total prices for the 100 most expensive lots sold at auction in 2024 totaled just under $1.8 billion, compared to $2.4 billion in 2023 and $4.1 billion in 2022. Key sales seasons this year have also offered an uneven picture: Most recently, New York’s marquee sales week in November yielded a total of $1.3 billion at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips—a 40% decrease from the year before. But these top-line figures conceal a more nuanced picture of what’s selling at auction houses more broadly. According to Artprice, for instance, lots that sold for less than $10,000 were the fastest-growing segment of the auction market in the first half of the year, representing 91% of art offered at auction worldwide. This marks an increase from 89% two years ago or an additional 30,000 artworks. Despite the doomsayers, 2024 was still a year of standout lots, strong artist records, and significant sales. As 2025 approaches, auction houses—like the art market more broadly—have reasons to feel optimistic, with a more hopeful economic environment chief among the reasons. Here, senior figures from Sotheby’s, Heritage Auctions, and Bonhams share their reflections on 2024 and look to the market in 2025. Helena NewmanExecutive vice president and worldwide head of Impressionist and modern art, Sotheby’sHelena Newman. Copyright Haydon Perrior. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.AdvertisementWhat are your general views on the auction market in 2024?What we saw in 2024 reflected the continuing demand for quality, fresh-to-the-market artworks that are well-priced, with blue-chip artists regaining their foothold. There were some fantastic collections offered, from that of Sydell Miller in New York to Ralph I. Goldenberg in London. There were also some unexpected moments that brought real excitement to the general public of art lovers, from the record-breaking dinosaur selling for $44.6 million to Maurizio Cattelan’s unmissable Comedian (2019). It was a year of two significant anniversaries in my field in particular: the 100th anniversary of the Surrealist manifesto and the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, with exhibitions [about both movements] all over the world. In this context, it was fitting for us to be able to celebrate that with the top lot of the year at Sotheby’s: a beautiful Claude Monet water lilies [painting]. It saw demand from four different bidders, selling to an Asian collector for $65.5 million—a perfect reflection of the demand from that region for iconic works of Impressionist art. It was also particularly fitting that the artwork that achieved this price was a later, large-format work that was created towards the end of his life, showcasing the growing appetite for the more abstract works in his oeuvre. With Surrealism, there was no be
Ven. Gen 10th, 2025
