Sotheby’s reported sales of $2.5 billion for the first half of 2020, spanning more than 250 live and online auctions across 44 categories in New York, London, Paris, Geneva and Hong Kong. The house recorded an 80 percent sold rate, with bidders and buyers competing from 119 countries, and more than 30 percent of them under 40 years of age.
The firm’s live summer marquee auctions in June and July totalled $1.2 billion worldwide. Online sales exceeded $285 million, more than three times the full-year online result for 2019. In private sales, close to 500 buyers acquired almost 700 works for a combined $575 million over the period.
The New York contemporary and Impressionist and modern art sales in June totalled $431.3 million across 3,794 lots sold in 17 auctions over seven days. The top price of that series, and the highest in New York year to date, was Francis Bacon’s Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus at $84.6 million.
The rescheduled April sale series, held in July in Hong Kong, totalled HK$3.22 billion, or about $411 million. Its top lot, and the highest price in Asia year to date, was Sanyu’s Quatre nus at $33.3 million.
The cross-category Rembrandt to Richter sale in London in July totalled £171.4 million, about $220 million, across five auctions. Its highest price, and the top result in Europe for the season, was Joan Miró’s Peinture (Femme au chapeau rouge) at $28.7 million.
(Press Release)
