One Season of Strong Auctions Won't Fix the Art Market's Deep Problems
Despite a record-breaking auction season—Sotheby's £393.4m June sale in London and $2.5bn aggregate in New York in May—the art market faces a severe bifurcation. Mega-dealers like Pace are laying off staff, galleries such as Dépendance and Tiwani Contemporary are closing, and gallerists report collapsing prices for ultra-contemporary artists. A record 79% of evening auction turnover was guaranteed, masking underlying weakness. The ultra-rich are hoarding wealth rather than spending on art, and American collectors are skipping Art Basel Switzerland for its Paris edition. The market's cyclical narrative is increasingly questioned.
Key facts
- Sotheby's June sale in London reached £393.4m, a European record for a single night.
- May New York auctions at Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips raised $2.5bn, double the previous year's $1.3bn.
- Christie's sale of S.I. Newhouse's collection fetched $630.8m, with Jackson Pollock's Number 7A selling for $181.2m.
- Pace Gallery laid off 50 staff and 50 artists in June 2026.
- Dépendance in Brussels and Tiwani Contemporary in London closed in June 2026.
- 79% of evening auction turnover in May was covered by third-party guarantees (Pi-eX data).
- Only a quarter of rich people surveyed by Capgemini plan to change tax residence in 2025, down from 56% in 2024.
- Art Basel Switzerland saw thin attendance on the second VIP day, with anecdotal evidence of American collectors preferring Art Basel Paris.
Entities
Artists
- Jackson Pollock
- Constantin Brâncuși
- Mark Rothko
- Egon Schiele
- Pablo Picasso
- Patrick Heron
- Anna Freeman Bentley
- Caroline Walker
- Jeffrey Gibson
Institutions
- Sotheby's
- Christie's
- Phillips
- Pace Gallery
- Dépendance
- Tiwani Contemporary
- Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert
- Lehmann Maupin
- Stephen Friedman Gallery
- Kate MacGarry Gallery
- Art Basel
- Frieze
- Artprice
- Pi-eX
- Capgemini
- The New York Times
- Financial Times
- London Gallery Weekend
- No. 9 Cork Street
- Royal College of Art
Locations
- New York
- United States
- London
- United Kingdom
- Bahamas
- Zurich
- Switzerland
- Brussels
- Belgium
- Paris
- France
- St James's
- Manhattan