Christie’s Reports Decline in Auction Sales For First Half of 2024

At a press conference this week, Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti revealed global sales results for the first half of 2024. The world’s largest auction house generated $2.1 billion in live and online auctions in the first six months of 2024—a 22 percent drop from the same period last year.

Cerutti described the global art market as “challenging” in this year’s press conference. He reportedly used similar rhetoric in 2023’s press conference. Indeed, international sales revenue at Christie’s has sharply declined over the past two years. In the first half of 2023, Christie’s generated $2.7 billion in live and online auction sales, compared to $3.5 billion for the same period in 2022.

This year, Christie’s 20th- and 21st-century art sales declined 24 percent compared to 2023. The lots in these sales tend to be critical highlights of the annual May marquee art auctions in New York. Meanwhile, luxury sales at Christie’s dropped 39 percent to $326 million. Additionally, unlike previous years’ financial reports, Christie’s did not provide any figures on private sales. Instead, a representative said, “Private sales remain at a high level and continue to make an important contribution to the business.” Between 2021 and 2023, private sales revenue at Christie’s dropped from $850 million to $484 million.

2024 Highs Include Warhol Sale and Asia-Pacific Expansion

“Despite a decline in our total auction sales, resilience is the key word to characterize Christie’s results for the first half of the year,” Cerutti said. Christie’s brought in $640 million during its May marquee auctions in New York this year. Flowers by Andy Warhol, which sold for $35.5 million, became the auction house’s top-selling work in the Americas. A Vincent van Gogh painting also set a record for Christie’s. Coin de jardin avec papillons sold for $33.2 million—the highest price for a work painted during the artist’s Paris period.

Christie’s also discussed plans for a “landmark year” in the Asia-Pacific region. In September, a new headquarters is set to open in Hong Kong. This follows the auction house’s focus on new and younger buyers from the Asia-Pacific region. At Christie’s, these buyers reportedly account for 26 percent of spending by new buyers and 38 percent of spending by millennial-aged buyers worldwide.

A cooling art market is not Christie’s only hurdle this year. In May, just before marquee sales kicked off in New York, the auction house was hit by a cyberattack that shuttered its website and compromised customer data. During Tuesday’s press conference, a journalist asked for details about the cyberattack and whether the auction house had paid a ransom demanded by the hackers. Christie’s executives did not provide any new information.

Christie’s was also hit with a class action lawsuit in June following the cyberattack. The lawsuit alleges that the auction house did not “properly secure and safeguard sensitive information of its customers” and that the information was “targeted, compromised, and unlawfully accessed due to the data breach.” When asked about the lawsuit’s status, a representative said that the auction house “will defend the lawsuits vigorously” and that they “do not intend to comment further on this matter.”