This yr marks a second consecutive drop in annual gross sales for Christie’s, which launched its projected 2024 outcomes Tuesday (17 December). The overall figures offered by the public sale home are estimates, as a handful of its 2024 gross sales have but to shut.
General, Christie’s netted $5.7bn this yr throughout reside, on-line and personal gross sales of artwork and luxurious items, a lower of “simply” 6% from the $6.1bn made in 2023, stated its chief government Guillaume Cerutti in a web based press convention Tuesday. Final yr took the next whole, but in addition represented a steeper drop of 26% from 2022’s whole results of $8.4bn, a file for Christie’s.
This was a “yr of two halves”, Cerutti stated. Whereas geopolitical instability, from wars to the US presidential election, continued to supply a “difficult setting for the artwork market”, a “robust autumn gross sales season” helped “flip issues round”: Christie’s made $3.6bn, or 63% of its gross sales, within the second half, in comparison with the $2.1bn it took in through the first half of 2024.
This included the yr’s most costly lot at public sale, René Magritte’s Les empires des lumières (1954) from the gathering of Mica Ertegun, which was offered in New York this November for $121m (with charges)—setting a brand new file for the beloved Surrealist. Underscoring how tough it has been to acquire trophy consignments this yr, that portray was the one nine-figure lot to return to public sale this yr; six works offered at public sale for $100m or extra in 2022.
Non-public gross sales thrive amid uncertainty
One other development revealed in Christie’s outcomes is the sustained development of personal gross sales, as public auctions proceed to battle. As Cerutti put it, “uncertainty triggers the necessity of reassurance from our shoppers”. Whereas gross sales at public sale fell 16% from final yr, these carried out away from the general public eye amassed $1.5bn for the home—a 41% improve year-on-year. That is Christie’s second-highest personal gross sales whole ever after the $1.7bn it achieved in 2021. Cerutti added that this yr noticed a number of “extraordinarily vital personal gross sales”, however past this $1.5bn whole determine, declined to remark additional.
Inserting 2024’s outcomes, and the shifting dynamic of auctions and personal gross sales, in a wider context, Christie’s whole figures this yr roughly match these of 2019, when it took in $5.8bn, however personal gross sales now account for nearly double the $817m constituted of such offers in 2019.
Christie’s doesn’t publish class breakdowns for personal gross sales, which means that it’s not attainable to establish how a lot of the general whole for 2024 was made by artwork versus luxurious items. Nevertheless, the home has offered class breakdowns for public sale gross sales, which comprise some stunning outcomes. Regardless of headlines being dominated by the expansion in gross sales of luxurious items at public sale homes, the posh class at Christie’s really noticed the sharpest decline at public sale in 2024, dropping 31% year-on-year. That is seemingly as a result of a discount in total spending by shoppers in Asia, who sometimes lead this class.
The Previous Masters class, whose efficiency is outlined way more by its more and more restricted provide than by demand, noticed a pointy 29% lower year-on-year. In the meantime, Twentieth- and Twenty first-century artwork, nonetheless by far essentially the most worthwhile class at public sale, dropped 15%.
Regional break up
Christie’s, like different main public sale homes, expanded its presence throughout the globe this yr—most notably in Hong Kong, the place it opened new headquarters within the Henderson Constructing. Whole public sale gross sales for Asia Pacific have been down by 8% year-on-year and the area’s whole share of Christie’s international public sale gross sales fell barely, from 28% to 26%.
In Paris this yr, public sale gross sales totalled €384m, a rise of 24% year-on-year. This was led by the €73m Barbier Mueller assortment, which set a world file for the one proprietor sale of African and Oceanic artwork.
Christie’s primary competitor Sotheby’s won’t launch its 2024 outcomes till subsequent month, in keeping with a Sotheby’s spokesperson. It’s understood that Sotheby’s whole for 2024 might be lower than Christie’s.
Christie’s government group have been requested through the press convention whether or not they had seen an uptick in consignments this yr as a result of Sotheby’s having modified its charge construction. Cerutti stated that whereas Christie’s will not touch upon the methods of its opponents, “public sale figures are public, and our H2 outcomes have been higher”.
Lastly, the public sale home addressed what may need been its greatest story of the yr: the Could cyberattack wherein hackers quickly took down its web site and reportedly harvested knowledge from greater than 500,000 present and former bidders. The home confirmed that it reached a settlement settlement to a category motion lawsuit filed in June by at the least one consumer, though it was unwilling to remark as as to if there’s any additional ongoing litigation associated to the hack.
