2nd Quarter Auction Review 2017

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• Pages: 18
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Auction sales shows steady growth in Q2 of 2017

Overall auction sales by Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips grew by 7.4% in Q2 2017 amounting to $4.19 billion compared to $3.90 billion in 2016. This follows on a 61.8% increase in auction sales for the first three months of the year.

Both Sotheby’s and Phillips report growing auction sales figures as well as market shares in Q2

Christie’s reported a 1.5% decrease in auction sales compared to Q2 last year, a figure that is likely to have been positive had Christie’s not cancelled their Post-War & Contemporary sales in June. Sotheby’s reported a 12% sales growth for the quarter while Phillips were up 65.7% compared to 12 months ago. Christie’s saw its market share drop from 51.9% in 2016 to 47.6% this year while Sotheby’s increased its Q2 market share from 43.7% in 2016 to 45.6% in 2017.

Sell-through rates remain high in second quarter

The average sell-through rate remained high in the second quarter of 2017 and came in at 80.2% (based on a total of 34,026 lots sold in the period out of 42,449 lots offered at auction). This was however slightly down compared to the first three months of the year when the average sell-through rate came in at 84% (based on a total of 17,237 lots sold in the period out of 20,520 lots offered at auction). The average price per lot sold in Q2 came in at $123,071, a 17% increase on the same period in 2016 when the average price was $105,190.