While the history of auctions goes back as far as the ancient Greeks, perhaps few could have predicted that the
would eventually generate billions. In 2023, the sales value of this market amounted to over 25 billion U.S. dollars. This figure, however, denotes a six percent annual decline, as the market slowed down after the rebound that followed the impact of COVID-19. That year, China, the United States, and the United Kingdom accounted for the highest
, representing together around three-quarters of the market. Although auction houses do not exclusively focus on art, they represent a pillar of the
, as public art and antiques auctions made up roughly 40 percent of total art sales worldwide in 2023.
The giants of the global auction market
Both founded in London, England, during the 1700s, auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s dominate the market. After a record-breaking 2022, marked by prestigious collections that reached historical results, sales at both companies went down the following year, but remained higher than in 2019. Overall,
total sales of Christie’s worldwide, including the public and private channels, exceeded six billion U.S. dollars in 2023, decreasing 26 percent compared to the previous year, when the auction house reported its highest figure to date. Meanwhile,
global sales of Sotheby’s fell by just one percent year-on-year, nearly equaling the company’s record from 2022. A third auction house, Phillips – also originated in London in the 18th century – experienced a similar trend. After that
global sales of Phillips reached a peak since the firm’s 225-year history in 2022, they declined by 23 percent in 2023, totaling one billion U.S. dollars.
The new normal of online auctions and NFT sales
With the major auction houses strengthening their digital departments during the COVID-19 lockdowns, online auctions skyrocketed due to the impact of the pandemic, as they helped reduce the negative effect of canceled in-person events. Even if this upward trend stopped with the ease of all emergency restrictions, online sales stayed way higher than in pre-pandemic levels, reaching a new normal. In 2023,
combined online-only sales of Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips generated just under 900 million U.S. dollars, a fivefold increase from 2019. On the other hand,
data on public auctions of art-related NFTs worldwide in 2023 show a very different picture, as sales of non-fungible tokens remained significantly below the figures reported in 2021 when the NFT frenzy hit the news. That said, despite losing momentum, the NFT auction market also seems to have found a new stability, with much lower but less volatile results. In this respect, when looking at the
leading NFT artists worldwide by auction revenue, four artists still managed to surpass the one-million U.S. dollars mark in 2023.
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