Christie’s sales rise ten per cent to a record £3.9bn in a year as art lovers swoop on contemporary works
Culture, Daily news | ankakh | January 18, 2013 15:10
The world’s largest auction house Christie’s saw record sales of £3.9billion last year, boosted by a growing demand in contemporary art.
The London-based auction house saw sales of works by post-war and living artists grow 33 per cent last year, as it set a company record for the third successive year.
Among the works behind last year’s boom for the company, which saw sales rise by ten per cent on last year, was mark Rothko’s Orange, Red, Yellow, which fetched a record £53.8m, and Claude Monet’s Nympheas, which sold for $43m.
The overall increase in 2012 came despite a slump in Christie’s auction sales of Asian art, which fell by a quarter to £415m after providing the engine for growth in recent years.
Competition from Chinese auctioneers and the end to a speculative bubble in some Asian art contributed to the decline, but Mr Murphy said the region had the potential to grow again longer term.
By expanding its online presence, Christie’s aims to capture more business in the mid to lower-tier markets, away from the multi-million-dollar deals that grab the headlines.
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