Sotheby’s made $1 billion in private sales in 2019
Monday, Apr 6 — 1:00 am
Revenue from private sales of the Sotheby’s auction house, according to his report, in 2019 amounted to $ 1 billion.
50% of this volume was accounted for by 30 transactions in the price range from $ 5 million to $ 50 million, although most of the works sold were valued in the range of $ 1–5 million.
Also, sales fell on the works of modern art. The most sought-after artists by the number of works sold over the past three years are Jonas Wood, Yayoi Kusama, George Kondo, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, KAWS and Alexander Calder.
The most expensive artists were “heavyweights” such as Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Mark Rothko, Fernand Leger, Gerhard Richter and Joan Mitchell.
The second most popular sales segment after contemporary art was the work of old masters. This is due to the limited supply in this market. Experts believe that Sotheby’s focus on the middle market segment, as well as the development of the low-cost lot sales market with a significant impact on the volume of ultra-expensive lot sales, allowed the auction house to receive a high return on investment in expanding private sales.