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august 04, 2020 - Sotheby

Sotheby's Year-to-Date Sales in 2020 Total $2.5 Billion

3 AUGUST 2020 – Charles Stewart, Sotheby's CEO, commented: "We are proud to conclude the first seven months of the year with $2.5 billion in sales, and I would like to thank our clients and employees for their extraordinary support during the pandemic. Our success was driven by strong customer demand for art and luxury, Sotheby's unique specialist expertise and trusted client relationships around the world, and our remarkable adaptations and innovations to the current environment. The company is in a strong financial position as we head into the second half of the year and, based on the demand we witnessed in #newyork, #hongkong and London over the past month, it promises to be an exciting fall."

MARKET & COLLECTOR INSIGHTS

Charles Stewart continued: "The art and luxury markets have proven to be incredibly resilient, and demand for quality across categories is unabated. The power of Asia, combined with the sophistication of established collectors and the appetite of new clients, was central to our success over the past seven months, and particularly since March. And although driven by necessity, it's clear that our clients' interest and confidence in technology has fundamentally changed."

In total, Sotheby's has conducted 250+ live and online sales to-date in 2020 (1 January – 31 July), which were a strong 80% sold overall. 

More than 30% of all bidders and buyers in the period had never transacted with Sotheby's before, and more than 30% of all bidders and buyers are under 40. We saw competition in our auctions from 100+ countries, with nearly 20% of new bidders and buyers in particular coming from across Asia.

A key driver of Sotheby's success in the first part of 2020, and a big part of what is driving the market today, is Asia. In the first seven months of the year, our sales in Asia totaled nearly $450 million – not to mention the impact Asian collectors had in our international salerooms. Sotheby's rescheduled April sale series in #hongkong, which was held in July, was the 7th-consecutive series to exceed $400 million – a testament to Sotheby's market leading position in Asia for five successive seasons. 

Online buyers in both our live and online auctions dramatically increased their appetite to transact at high levels this spring. While the average lot value in our online sales is just over $20,000 (more than double the average in 2019), 12 works have sold for prices in excess of $1 million since March, including both fine art and luxury goods.

Online buying in our live auctions included two benchmark prices achieved in the same evening: first with Joan Mitchell's Garden Party, sold to an online bidder for $7.9 million, and later with Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled (Head), sold for $15.2 million. That same night, a client from China bid up to $73.1 million on Francis Bacon's large-format masterpiece Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus.

INNOVATION & ADAPTATION DRIVES SALES

Charles Stewart continued: "Our team successfully took the circumstances of the past several months and turned them into opportunities, which advanced numerous initiatives that will likely change our business forever. Innovation is underway in every corner of the company: from creative sale formats that maximize flexibility for our clients, to the deployment of new digital tools that allow more #people to engage with us than ever, to the launch of multiple buy-now initiatives."

ONLINE SALES

Beginning in March, with lockdown measures in place around the globe, Sotheby's dramatically accelerated our online sales program in order to meet the continued demand and needs of collectors. We converted a number of traditional live auctions online, added wholly new online sales to the calendar, and continued to source and sell remotely. 

Combined with the overall buoyancy of the market, those efforts propelled Sotheby's online sales to grow a staggering 540% in the first seven months of 2020 (compared to the same period in 2019). In total, we held 180+ online auctions across 44 collecting categories that have raised more than $285 million, with sales continuing to close daily. 

PRIVATE SALES

Against a backdrop of fair cancellations and gallery closures, Sotheby's offered unprecedented access to our private sales program to both new and established collectors. This included the launch of a robust online viewing platform, the debut of Sotheby's Gallery Network, and the opening of our East Hampton Gallery in June (details below).

Sotheby's overall volume of private sales transactions increased approximately 10% year-to-date in 2020 compared to 2019, with the most traded artists including #andywarhol, #yoshitomonara, Eddie Martinez, Sam Francis and Ed Ruscha. In total, private sales for the period totaled $575 million (including private sales of inventory).

LIVE AUCTIONS

This June marked the reintroduction of live auctions to our global salerooms. In just two months, our auctions in #newyork, #hongkong, London, Paris and Geneva achieved a remarkable $1.2 billion, led by the highest price for any work at auction this year (Francis Bacon's Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, sold for $84.6 million in New York), the highest price for any work at sold at auction in Asia this year (Sanyu's Quatre nus, sold for $33.3 million in Hong Kong), and the highest price for any work at auction across Europe – both for the year (David Hockney's The Splash, sold for $29.8 million in February), and for the summer season (Joan Miró's Peinture (Femme au chapeau rouge), sold for $28.7 million in London this week). 

Our marquee sales in particular were wholly re-imagined, and transformed into a revolutionary auction format that was conducted via innovative and seamless video streams. Debuted on 29 June, an auctioneer in London was united with phone bidders in #newyork, London and #hongkong in one high-definition experience. Clients placed bids with Sotheby's specialists in #newyork, #hongkong and London via phone, or via Sotheby's state-of-the-art proprietary online bidding platform. 

The evening, which totaled $363 million and established 14 new auction records, marked the most important single test of the international art market in 2020, and attracted five times Sotheby's average online viewership. In July, our London sale series employed the same live-streamed global format, and was watched live by an audience of 150,000.