Christie’s Continues to Lead Art Market Sales up 26% to Almost £3 Billion

Continued global demand, audience engagement with the diversity of collecting categories and the historic Rockefeller sales helped drive a 26% rise in Christie’s overall sales to almost £3bn ($4bn, up 35%) compared to £2.35bn in the first half of 2017. Auction sell-through rates across all lots bands increased to 84%. Sales were up across all three selling platforms, with auction sales increasing 20% to £2.65bn ($3.61bn, up 28%), private sales up 135% totalling £287m ($390.3m, up 151%) and online-only auction sales up 40% to £27.7m ($37.7m, up 50%).
Guillaume Cerutti, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “It has been a record-breaking first half for Christie’s. 27% of all buyers were new to us during this period and we also achieved consistently high sell-through rates averaging 84% by lot. We are also encouraged by an array of strong consignments to offer collectors in the Autumn.”

Highlights at Auction
80% of the highest selling objects in the first half of 2018 were sold at Christie’s, with 55 lots sold over $10 million.
Online sales attract the largest number of new buyers (40%). By category the Luxury group continues to draw the highest percentage of new clients at 29%, with Asian clients spending 10% more in this category in the first half of 2018. Decorative Arts was also the second highest entry point for new buyers (19%). The number of new buyers for lots over £1 million rose by 32%.
Global audiences continue to visit Christie’s both in person and virtually with Rockefeller public exhibition enjoyed by over 85,000 people around the world. To welcome new audiences to collecting, Christie’s ‘Lates’ programme gathers momentum in New York and London complementing increased digital engagement with Christie’s editorial content.
Total spend online was £88m ($119.7m) for the first half of 2018, when combining the totals for Christie’s LIVETM, £60.3m ($82m) and online-only sales, which jumped by 40% to £27.7 million ($37.7 million, up 50%). 47 online sales were held in the first half of 2018 including a third of the volume of lots in the Rockefeller collection being sold online. Sell-through rates by lot for sales online rose to 87% and the average price per lot was $8,483. For the second year running, Christie’s was named top of the annual Hiscox online art platform ranking in April 2018. 44% of all website traffic came from mobile devices, an increase of 19%. Last week, Christie’s hosted the first Art Technology Summit exploring the future of Blockchain on the art market.
Across the board, collections achieved strong results: the celebration of the Cobra artistic movement, which was 100% sold at the new sale venue in Amsterdam; masterpieces by Richard Diebenkorn were sold to benefit the Zucker Family Foundation for $46,068,750 in New York; and the Tisch Collection selling for $107,089,100.
As part of Christie’s continued investment in Christie’s Education celebrating its 40th year the London faculty will relocate in September to 42 Portland Place. Since the launch of online learning courses in October 2017, 18% of all students are now enrolled on this platform.
Image on top: Christie's King Street, ©Christie's