World’s biggest auction houses earn record $18B in 2022

With almost $18 billion in cumulative sales, the three major auction houses - Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips - had their best year ever, Report informs referring to Bloomberg.

In 2022, Christie’s brought in $8.4 billion in sales, while Sotheby’s reached $8 billion and Phillips made $1.3 billion. Christie’s claims that its stratospheric result is the highest annual total in art-market history.

That house’s overall total was buttressed by a whopping $6.2 billion in sales of 20th- and 21st-century art alone. Classics - including Old Masters, memorabilia, antiques and decorative arts - added another $789 million, while luxury categories hit almost $1 billion. Rounding out the total was $400 million in sales of Asian and world art.

At Sotheby’s, meanwhile, fine art and luxury sales made up $6.8 billion, a decline from last year’s $7.3 billion. But the house’s overall total was buoyed by sales at RM Sotheby’s, which offers collectible cars, and Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions, which deals in real estate. While Sotheby’s doesn’t own either of those companies outright, it does include their sales in its final numbers.

Phillips, which is best known for its contemporary art sales, pushed into new categories this year, helping to elevate its total sales. Indeed, sales of modern art—including works by Marc Chagall, Roy Lichtenstein and Pablo Picasso—increased an impressive 50 percent.