Even the most casual observer knows that the art market is booming. Now, after mining the data of Artnet’s signature Fine Arts Auction Database, the extent of that boom has become surprisingly clear. On the global art market, works by approximately 3,100 artists have set new auction records. That’s right. It’s as if more than eight new artist’s records were set every single day of the year. It’s an astonishing feat.
The top lot in our record-breaking list is Canaletto’s Venice, the Grand Canal, looking north-east from Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto Bridge, selling at Sotheby’s London on July 7 for £18,600,000, or about $32.7 million (including premium), well over twice its presale high estimate of $14.4 million. This lot topped by a comfortable margin the second highest Canaletto on record, which sold at Christie’s London the evening before for slightly more than $20 million.
Other notable lots of recent vintage include David Smith’s Cubi XXVIII (1965), a polished stainless steel "gate" sculpture, which sold after a ferocious bidding war at Sotheby’s New York on Nov. 9 for $23,816,000. The work had an unpublished presale estimate of $12 million. The buyer, as it was later announced, was Los Angeles supercollector Eli Broad, who is working with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on a new building for contemporary art.
Also in the top ten is Roy Lichtenstein’s dramatic Pop painting, In the Car (1963), which sold for $16,256,000), right at the top end of its presale high estimate of $16 million. The picture had been in Lichtenstein’s historic 1963 exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery, and was being sold by the artist’s son, Mitchell Lichtenstein.
The data also reflects the relatively recent movement of art-market action from the Impressionist era to the 20th century, with only Henri Toulouse-Lautrec breaking the top ten (and he is not, needless to say, an Impressionist). Clearly, when it comes to Impressionism, the best works -- and the record-setting prices -- came up in years past.
The extension of the art market to previously untapped precincts around the globe is also evident from this inventory, as the Paris-based artist Wou-Ki Zao’s mural-sized abstract triptych from 1985 sold for $2,318,468 at Christie’s Hong Kong on May 29. What’s more, a number of works by Russian artists sold for record-setting prices at auctions in New York and London, led by Konstantin Makovsky, whose 1889 fantasia titled The Judgment of Paris sold for $2,088,000 at “Russian Art” sale at Sotheby’s New York on Apr. 21.
A full 95 record-breaking lots sold for more than $1 million year-to-date since Nov. 5, as shown in the table below. Towards the bottom of the list we find younger, contemporary artists -- a part of the market that is clearly growing fast. Among them are Luc Tuymans ($1,472,000), Richard Prince ($1,248,000), Christopher Wool ($1,248,000) and Chris Ofili ($1,001,600). It’s worth noting that the record-setting Richard Prince price was paid for a photograph, marking the first time that a photo sold for over $1,000,000, and that the list also includes the ever-youthful Louise Bourgeois, whose 1997 bronze Spider sold for $3,040,000 at Sotheby’s New York on Nov. 9.
In terms of dollar volume in the million-dollar-plus category, Christie’s dominated Sotheby’s, accounting for $248 million (60 percent) of the $417 million in total sales, compared with Sotheby’s sales of $156 million (38 percent). When all 3,100 lots are considered, Sotheby’s narrows the margin somewhat, but Christie’s still took home 27 percent more in sales than its rival -- at least in the category of record-breaking sales.
Rank |
Artist |
Price |
Date |
Venue |
Sale |
1 |
Canaletto |
$32,746,479 |
07/07/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Old Master Paintings |
2 |
Constantin Brancusi |
$27,456,000 |
05/04/05 |
Christie's New York |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
3 |
David Smith |
$23,816,000 |
11/09/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Contemporary Art |
4 |
Mark Rothko |
$22,416,000 |
11/08/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
5 |
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec |
$22,416,000 |
11/01/05 |
Christie's New York |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
6 |
Roy Lichtenstein |
$16,256,000 |
11/08/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
7 |
Edward Hopper |
$14,016,000 |
05/11/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
8 |
Andrea del Sarto |
$11,740,072 |
07/05/05 |
Christie's London |
Old Master & 19th Century Drawings |
9 |
Francis Bacon |
$10,096,000 |
11/08/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
10 |
Chaïm Soutine |
$9,365,492 |
02/07/05 |
Christie's London |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
11 |
Kees van Dongen |
$9,178,182 |
06/20/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
12 |
Cy Twombly |
$8,696,000 |
11/09/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Contemporary Art |
13 |
Lucian Freud |
$7,703,154 |
02/09/05 |
Christie's London |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
14 |
Yves Tanguy |
$7,495,362 |
02/07/05 |
Christie's London |
The Art of the Surreal |
15 |
Philip Guston |
$7,296,000 |
05/11/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
16 |
Paul Signac |
$6,632,727 |
06/20/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
17 |
Franz Kline |
$6,400,000 |
05/11/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
18 |
Jan van de Cappelle |
$6,323,944 |
07/08/05 |
Christie's London |
Important Old Master Pictures |
19 |
Charles Marion Russell |
$5,600,000 |
07/30/05 |
Coeur d'Alene |
Western, Wildlife & Sporting Art |
20 |
Henri Edmond Cross |
$5,410,909 |
06/20/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
21 |
Berthe Morisot |
$5,168,000 |
11/02/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Impressionist & Modern Art Part One |
22 |
Chuck Close |
$4,832,000 |
05/10/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Contemporary Art |
23 |
Franz Xaver Messerschmidt |
$4,832,000 |
01/27/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Art of the Enlightenment |
24 |
Gerrit Dou |
$4,720,000 |
05/25/05 |
Christie's New York |
Old Master Paintings |
25 |
John Frederick Lewis |
$4,494,545 |
06/15/05 |
Christie's London |
Private Collection |
26 |
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff |
$4,494,545 |
06/21/05 |
Christie's London |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
27 |
Jan Brueghel the Younger |
$3,957,746 |
07/07/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Old Master Paintings |
28 |
Luca Carlevaris |
$3,957,746 |
07/07/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Old Master Paintings |
29 |
Andrew Wyeth |
$3,824,000 |
05/18/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture |
30 |
Robert Henri |
$3,600,000 |
05/19/05 |
Christie's New York |
American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture |
31 |
Marlene Dumas |
$3,339,518 |
02/09/05 |
Christie's London |
Post-War & Contemporary |
32 |
David Hockney |
$3,284,672 |
06/22/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Contemporary Art |
33 |
Théo van Rysselberghe |
$3,152,000 |
11/01/05 |
Christie's New York |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
34 |
Arturo Martini |
$3,044,297 |
05/24/05 |
Christie's Milan |
Arte Moderna e Contemporanea |
35 |
Louise Bourgeois |
$3,040,000 |
11/09/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Contemporary Art |
36 |
Samuel Scott |
$2,945,848 |
07/05/05 |
Sotheby's London |
The Wills Sale |
37 |
Martin Johnson Heade |
$2,760,000 |
05/18/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture |
38 |
Alexander Archipenko |
$2,661,818 |
06/21/05 |
Christie's London |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
39 |
Joseph Cornell |
$2,592,000 |
05/11/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
40 |
Antoine Jean Gros |
$2,380,282 |
07/08/05 |
Christie's London |
Important Old Master Pictures |
41 |
Giovanni Guercino |
$2,380,282 |
07/07/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Old Master Paintings |
42 |
Wou-Ki Zao |
$2,318,468 |
05/29/05 |
Christie's Hong Kong |
20th Century Chinese Art |
43 |
Julius LeBlanc Stewart |
$2,312,000 |
05/19/05 |
Christie's New York |
American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture |
44 |
François Gérard |
$2,256,000 |
01/27/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Art of the Enlightenment |
45 |
Filippo Lippi |
$2,256,000 |
01/26/05 |
Christie's New York |
Old Master Paintings |
46 |
Sanford Robinson Gifford |
$2,144,000 |
05/19/05 |
Christie's New York |
American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture |
47 |
Konstantin Makovsky |
$2,088,000 |
04/21/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Russian Art |
48 |
François Boucher |
$2,084,507 |
07/06/05 |
Christie's London |
The Champalimaud Collection |
49 |
Edward Burne-Jones |
$2,077,348 |
06/14/05 |
Christie's London |
Important British Art |
50 |
Konstantin Korovin |
$1,912,339 |
05/19/05 |
Sotheby's London |
The Russian Art |
51 |
Maynard Dixon |
$1,792,000 |
07/30/05 |
Coeur d'Alene |
Western, Wildlife & Sporting Art |
52 |
Martin Schongauer |
$1,788,732 |
07/07/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Old Master Paintings |
53 |
Sigmar Polke |
$1,696,000 |
05/11/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
54 |
Georg Baselitz |
$1,649,635 |
06/23/05 |
Christie's London |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
55 |
Pieter Casteels III |
$1,640,000 |
05/25/05 |
Christie's New York |
Old Master Paintings |
56 |
Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev |
$1,584,000 |
04/21/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Russian Art |
57 |
Hans Hofmann |
$1,584,000 |
11/08/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
58 |
Tyeb Mehta |
$1,584,000 |
09/21/05 |
Christie's New York |
Indian & Southeast Asian Art |
59 |
Willard LeRoy Metcalf |
$1,584,000 |
05/19/05 |
Christie's New York |
American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture |
60 |
Alfred Dedreux |
$1,561,694 |
05/20/05 |
Christie's London |
Sporting Art |
61 |
Nicolas Regnier |
$1,552,113 |
07/07/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Old Master Paintings |
62 |
Eduardo Chillida |
$1,486,131 |
06/23/05 |
Christie's London |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
63 |
Roderick O'Conor |
$1,483,146 |
05/13/05 |
Sotheby's London |
The Irish Sale |
64 |
Henri Laurens |
$1,472,000 |
11/01/05 |
Christie's New York |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
65 |
Luc Tuymans |
$1,472,000 |
05/11/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
66 |
Mario Merz |
$1,469,388 |
02/09/05 |
Christie's London |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
67 |
Jean de Bologne |
$1,468,788 |
06/06/05 |
Salle Rossini |
Succession de Mme de C. |
68 |
Antonio Susini |
$1,466,411 |
04/22/05 |
Christie's London |
Private Collection |
69 |
Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky |
$1,458,564 |
05/19/05 |
Sotheby's London |
The Russian Art Sale |
70 |
Le Corbusier |
$1,440,000 |
06/20/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
71 |
Edward Sheriff Curtis |
$1,416,000 |
10/12/05 |
Christie's New York |
Photographs |
72 |
Henryk Siemiradzky |
$1,416,000 |
10/25/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
19th Century European Art |
73 |
Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton |
$1,410,198 |
05/23/05 |
Sotheby's Melbourne |
The Foster's Collection of Australian Art |
74 |
Job Adriaensz Berckheyde |
$1,394,366 |
07/07/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Old Master Paintings |
75 |
Liao Jichun |
$1,382,856 |
05/29/05 |
Christie's Hong Kong |
The Yageo Foundation Collection |
76 |
Vasili Dimitrievich Polenov |
$1,293,554 |
05/19/05 |
Sotheby's London |
The Russian Art Sale |
77 |
Xu Beihong |
$1,253,309 |
05/29/05 |
Christie's Hong Kong |
Modern & Contemporary Chinese Paintings |
78 |
Richard Prince |
$1,248,000 |
11/08/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
79 |
James Rosenquist |
$1,248,000 |
05/11/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
80 |
Christopher Wool |
$1,248,000 |
11/08/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
81 |
Yayoi Kusama |
$1,192,000 |
05/11/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
82 |
Maurice Quentin de Latour |
$1,187,004 |
07/05/05 |
Christie's London |
Old Master & 19th Century Drawings |
83 |
David Bomberg |
$1,180,111 |
06/10/05 |
Christie's London |
20th Century British Art |
84 |
Zhiliu Xie |
$1,164,252 |
05/01/05 |
Sotheby's Hong Kong |
Fine Chinese Paintings |
85 |
Marcantonio Bassetti |
$1,157,746 |
07/07/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Old Master Paintings |
86 |
Conrad Felixmüller |
$1,136,000 |
11/02/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Impressionist & Modern Art |
87 |
Jacques Le Moyne |
$1,136,000 |
01/26/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
Old Master Drawings |
88 |
John Glover |
$1,103,881 |
05/23/05 |
Sotheby's Melbourne |
The Foster's Collection of Australian Art |
89 |
Lucas Cranach |
$1,098,592 |
07/07/05 |
Sotheby's London |
Old Master Paintings |
90 |
Eugen von Blaas |
$1,080,000 |
10/25/05 |
Sotheby's New York |
19th Century European Art |
91 |
Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin |
$1,080,000 |
04/27/05 |
Christie's Los Angeles |
American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture |
92 |
Martin Kippenberger |
$1,024,000 |
05/12/05 |
Phillips, de Pury & Co. |
Contemporary Art |
93 |
Isamu Noguchi |
$1,024,000 |
05/11/05 |
Christie's New York |
Post-War & Contemporary Art |
94 |
Antonio Augusto Giacometti |
$1,023,622 |
06/17/05 |
Galerie Kornfeld |
19th & 20th Century Art |
95 |
Chris Ofili |
$1,001,600 |
05/12/05 |
Phillips, de Pury & Co. |
Contemporary Art |
