Christie’s Declining Annual Sales
2024 marks another year in a row for Christie’s declining annual sales, when the auction house announced its projected results on Tuesday, December 17. Since a few sales are yet to be final, all the totals shared are mere estimates. In total, Christie’s generated $5.7 billion this year from live, online, and private sales of art and luxury items.
This however is a 6% drop from the $6.1 billion earned in 2023, CEO Guillaume Cerutti stated during an online press conference. Even though 2023’s figure may seem high, it was a substantial decline of 26% from the record-breaking $8.4 billion total in 2022.
The “Two Halves” of 2024
Guillaume Cerutti divided the year into “two halves.” Although geopolitical instability, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and the US presidential election, contributed to a “challenging environment for the art market,” the “strong autumn sales season” helped to “turn things around,” with Christie’s earning $3.6 billion, or 63% of its total revenue, in the latter half of the year compared to $2.1 billion in the first half of 2024.
René Magritte’s Painting As the Only Saving Grace for Christie’s
This period included Christie’s most expensive piece, René Magritte’s ‘Les empires des lumières’ (1954), which sold for $121 million (including fees) in New York this November; a new record for the Surrealist. This painting was the only lot to exceed nine figures at auction, while six works sold for $100 million or more in 2022.
Christie’s 2024 Private Sales
Private sales flourish amid uncertainty. Christie’s results show continued expansion of private sales as public auctions face challenges. Cerutti remarked that “uncertainty triggers the need for reassurance from our clients.” While auction sales declined by 16% from 2023, private sales brought in $1.5 billion—an increase of 41%. This marks Christie’s second-highest total in private sales, only surpassed by the $1.7 billion total in 2021. Cerutti noted that this year featured several “extremely important private sales.”
A Breakdown of Christie’s Reports
When comparing the results of 2024 and the evolving dynamics between auctions and private sales, Christie’s totals this year are approximately on par with those of 2019, which saw $5.8 billion in revenue, but private sales now constitute nearly double the $817 million obtained from such transactions in 2019. Christie’s has shared category breakdowns for auction sales, revealing some unexpected insights.
Despite the media’s focus on the rise of luxury goods sales at auction houses, the luxury category at Christie’s experienced the steepest decline at auction in 2024, falling 31% year-on-year. This drop is likely a result of decreased overall client spending in Asia, a region typically leading this category. The Old Masters category; influenced more by the limited supply rather than demand, saw a significant 29% decrease compared to 2023. Conversely, the 20th- and 21st-century art category, which remains the most valuable at auction, experienced a 15% decline.
Christie’s and Its Regional Divisions
This year, Christie’s broadened its global footprint, particularly in Hong Kong, where it inaugurated new headquarters in the Henderson Building. Total auction sales in the Asia Pacific region decreased by 8% compared to 2023, causing the region’s overall contribution to Christie’s global auction sales to dip slightly, from 28% to 26%.
In Paris, auction sales reached €384m this year, representing a 24% increase year-on-year. This growth was driven by the €73m Barbier Mueller collection, which achieved a world record for a single-owner sale of African and Oceanic art.
Christie’s Under Cyber Attack
The auction house tackled what was possibly its most significant issue of the year: the cyberattack in May, where hackers temporarily disrupted its website and reportedly collected data from over 500,000 current and former bidders. Christie’s confirmed that it reached a settlement agreement regarding a class action lawsuit filed in June by at least one client.
Image Courtesy – Christie’s
Contributor
