Art Collectors Bet on Known Quantities Amid Market Reset
Artnet News, citing the Artnet Intelligence Report: Year Ahead 2026, reports that collectors in 2025 favored blue-chip artists and trophy lots as speculative ultra-contemporary art continued to cool. The Impressionist and Modern segment became the most lucrative category, generating $4.7 billion in sales, up 29.5% from 2024, with growth concentrated in the $10-million-plus bracket (reported at $1.5 million, up 68.6%) and 122,213 lots sold, a decade high. Postwar and contemporary totaled $4.1 billion (up 2.5%), with 178,445 lots sold but a decade-low average price per lot of $23,027. Old Masters rose to $708.6 million (up 41.2%), helped by Sotheby’s May sale of the Thomas A. Saunders III collection ($65 million, about $15 million below presale estimate), while ultra-contemporary (artists born after 1974) fell to $229.9 million (down 26.5%) and a decade-low average auction price of $15,629—down 72.4% from its 2021 peak.
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This story was covered in Censorship Clashes and a Market Reset Shock