The long-anticipated rebound in the global art market has started to take shape. Following a tentative start to the year, confidence returned decisively in the second half of 2025, supported by the release of several landmark single-owner collections. Across the major auction houses, sales of Old Masters, Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary art reached over $4.5 billion in 2025, above the level in 2024, though still below the 2022 peak.

We are delighted to present ArtTactic's The Art Market 2025 – an annual review that captures some of the key art market trends and moments over the last 12 months. In this report we take a close look at the global auction market in 2025 and some of the key trends emerging across different artist generations.

This analysis is based on auction sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips between 2015 and 2025. The analysis covers Old Masters, Impresssionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary auction sales in New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris, Milan, Shanghai and Singapore. Our definition of artists’ categories are defined by the artist’s birth date. Old Masters (pre-1819), Impressionist (1820 - 1879), Modern (1880 - 1909), Post-War (1910 - 1929), Contemporary (1930 - 1979) and Young Contemporary (1980 Onwards).