CHRISTIE’S CONTINUES TO LEAD GLOBAL ART MARKET
2018 SALES TOTAL £5.3 BILLION (US$7 BILLION)
- Leading Collections Sales Globally including Rockefeller and Ebsworth
- Sell Through Rates Up at 82%
- Private Sales Up 4% to £491.2 million
- 32% of All Buyers New to Christie’s, with Online Sales the Number One Recruiter for New Buyers (41%)
London – Christie’s confirms continued global art market leadership and announces the highest art sales total in company history. 2018 sales totalled £5.3 billion, an increase of 3% on 2017 ($7 billion, up 6%) and were led by the historic Rockefeller sale, the most significant collection ever sold at auction.
Global auction sales rose 3% to £4.7 billion ($6.3 billion, up 6%) with sell through rates by lot increasing to 82%, a reflection of a continued focus on carefully edited and estimated sales. Private sales realised £491.2 million, up 4% ($653.3 million, up 7%) and atotal of 88 online-only sales totalled £65.1 million, up 16% ($86.6 million, up 20%). 32% of all buyers were new to Christie’s with spend by this group increasing by 20% across regions and price points. Online sales continue to contribute the highest percentage of new buyers (41% of new buyers joined Christie’s via online sales, up from 37%). The top categories for attracting new buyers were Luxury sales (32%) and Post-War and Contemporary Art sales (16%). The demand for works over £10 million continued with 67 works sold at this level during the year, up from 65 in 2017.
Guillaume Cerutti, Chief Executive Officer, Christie’s commented: “2018 was record-breaking at Christie’s with several major collections and continued demand across all categories. While signs of a more challenging macro-political and economic environment increased towards the end of last year, we remain confident of continued success in 2019, thanks to judicious planning and continued focus on curation, selection and pricing.”
AMERICAS: Christie’s Innovative Presentation of Collections Leads the Market
Sales in the Americas increased to £2.7 billion, up 9% ($3.6 billion, up 12%). In 2018, American buyers accounted for 39% of global spend. 40% of new buyers to Christie’s came from America.
- The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller raised a record $835,111,344 for a dozen philanthropies, a new record for any private collection sale at auction.
- In 2018, Christie’s Americas held record-breaking sales from an unprecedented number of additional collections including selections from the Tisch, Stafford, Ebsworth, Anderson, de Menil, Newhouse, Bucksbaum, Klapper, Zucker, Thaw, Rose and Perenchio Collections.
- The Barney A. Ebsworth collection was led by masterpieces by Edward Hopper ($91,875,000), Willem de Kooning ($68,937,500), Jackson Pollock ($55,437,500), and Jasper Johns ($21,125,000). The auction was the first of its importance to be recorded on a blockchain registry, and complimented the success of the American Art category at Christie’s in 2018.
- In November, Christie’s sold David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) for $90,312,500, more than doubling the previous auction record for a living artist.
- A world record price for an Assyrian relief was set in October in New York when the gypsum relief of a Winged Genius made for the palace of Ashurnasirpal II, circa 883-859 BC, realised $30,968,750, the second highest price for any work of ancient art.
- Christie’s regional network continues to engage with events in Dallas, Houston, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and in South America at our offices in Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Sao Paulo.
ASIA: Asian Buying Across Categories and Sale Sites Continues
