Christie announced on Tuesday that it expects total sales in the first half of 2025 (H1-2025). The $2.1 billion figure, including expenses, is equal to the sum it generated in the first half of 2024 (H1-2024).
Although the total last year fell 22% year-on-year from the same period in 2023, Christie Global President Alex Rotter told reporters in a Zoom call that this year’s plateau parts lowered the “pocket of 20th and 21st century art.”
Does this mean that the market for modern and contemporary art is declining after it is stable? not necessarily. In most art categories, strong sales in their luxury categories cope with an even total. Christie sold nearly 30% of handbags, watches, cars and jewelry during H1-2025, generating $468 million, or 22% of the total of $2.1 billion, compared with handbags, watches, cars and jewelry sold in H1-2024.
However, Rotter quickly emphasized the “good job” of the art market, adding: “The narrative of the market’s decline is too simple,” he said. “We’re seeing strong growth in Impressionist and modern work compared to 10 or 15 years ago.” For example, sales at the Old Masters increased by 15% to $55 million, thanks in large part to Christie’s February sale in New York, which earned $24.4 million. While the result is still shy than its $33.2 million pre-sale estimate, it beat the $13.7 million generated in Old Masters sales in January 2024.
Rotter also points to what he calls a positive “psychological shift,” which was a collector triggered by Christie’s “inducing excitement in the market.” He continued: “We’re not reshaping art, we’re revisiting categories and artists. Last year, you saw the return of surrealism and focus on female surreal artists.”
Last fall, a blockbuster surreal survey at the Centre Pompidou in Paris celebrated the centenary of the movement, which helped fuel collectors’ interest. Last March, Christie’s London exceeded £130.3 million ($174.4 million), including fees, with surrealism in the 20th and 21st century at a three-hour 72 lot double-head auction. The outstanding location is René Magritte’s LA Reconnaissance Unlimited (1933), surpassing its estimate of £6 million ($8 million) for sale for £10.3 million ($13.7 million).
During a press conference on Tuesday, Christie provided many keen statistics to the $2.1 billion figure for the home. For example, guaranteed batches account for only 1.5% of all batches sold in H1-2025, up from 1.3% in H1-2024. Hammer price is estimated to be low at 115%, which means that the winning bid for all lots for sale (before charging) exceeds its minimum expectations by about 15%. Houses sell at 88% in online and live auctions across all categories (compared to the figures for this period in 2023 and 2024).
More broadly, Christie sells seven of seven of the top ten works at any auction in H1-2025, putting the highest-priced work this year in a difficult situation: Piet Mondrian’s Composition with big red plane, blue gray, yellow, black and blue (1922). It sold in New York for $46.7 million, totaling $272 million as part of the sale of Leonard and Louise Riggio.
But the real excitement seems to come from luxury sales of homes. Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s head of international jewelry, said its handbags, watches and jewelry categories “recruited 41% of Christie’s new buyers, many of whom are now trading in many other categories.” (Encouraging cross-category purchases is a strategy that Christie and Sotheby’s have been pushing for a while.)
Last month, Christie’s New York sold the 10.38-carat Marie-Thérèse Pink Diamond, which may have once been owned by Marie Antoinette, almost double its height estimate. Similarly, Christie’s acquisition of the auto company last fall seems to have paid off, while auto sales rose 12% last year.
Christie [of] The main single-person collection (just real estate property, and seller at the discretion), is the vast majority of the signal that the market is stable and safe. “AI will also play a role in Christie’s plans to move forward to “create greater efficiency in our business, helping us explore, target and enhance this experience,” she said. ”
So, what is the launch of the art market that will be launched in the second half of the year? “We are an auction business,” Brennan said. “We are a business that brings enthusiasm from the energy and excitement in the room, and it all comes about when we can attract the widest range of bid audiences, which is due to the reasonable pricing of things as a desire to die.”
