London’s average resale returns comes in at the same levels as in February 2022

The London Marquee evening sales of Impressionist, Modern, Post- War and Contemporary art in June saw 66 lots returning to the auction market for the second, third or fourth time with a combined low estimate of $164.7 million, accounting for 49.1% of the total evening sales value.

The average nominal annual rate of return for the 66 repeat sales that were sold at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips Hong Kong auctions this spring came in at 5.4% (not adjusted for inflation). This compared to an average of 5.2% for repeat sales in London’s Marquee week in February, 7.1% for New York’s Marquee week in May and 15.3% for Hong Kong auctions this Spring.

The average holding period across the 66 repeat sales was 23.5 years, with 80.9% of the lots returning to the auction market within 10 years. This compared to 21.4 years average holding period for the London auctions in February, 25.5 years for the auctions in New York in May and 9.6 for Hong Kong this Spring.

The fourth edition of our new Resale Analysis series, looks at the performance of these 66 repeat auction sales and whether there are certain trends that can be identified between holding periods and return on investment.