Global Art Auction Sales Plummet 20% Over Same Period in 2018

The latest financial report for global art sales is in and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

Sales at the the top auction houses — Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips — tumbled a staggering 20.3% in the first half of 2019 over the same period the year before, according to Auction Review.

Despite Contemporary and Postwar sales inching up about $100 million from last year to 2019, sales of Impressionist and modern sales sank nearly $1 billion during the same period, from $2.4 billion to $1.5 billion.

Asian and Chinese art dropped nearly 50%, according to The Financial Times, which reported just $447 million in auction sales — down from $875 million during the first half of 2018.

In June, German Expressionist artist Walter Jacob’s “View into the Castle Garden” sold for over $84 million, and Amedeo Modigliani’s “Young Man Sitting with Hands Crossed on Knees” took in $23.3 million.[More News] French couple faces jail time after allegedly taking 90 pounds of sand from beach in Sardinia »

One major cause for the precipitous decline was the massive May 2018 selloff of Peggy and David Rockefeller’s collection, which sold for an eye-popping $832 million, according to Christie’s.

Three of the priciest artworks in that sale included Pablo Picasso’s “Young Girl with a Flower Basket,” which was sold for $115 million; Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies in Bloom" — scooping up for $84.7 million — and Henri Matisse’s “Odalisque couchee aux magnolias,” which received a final bid of $80.8 million.