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The result came in a year when Sotheby's sales held steady and Christie's fell by a quarter.

Bonhams Boasts Highest Sales Total Ever in 2023

Paul Signac, Sisteron (1902) sold for $8.6 million at Bonham's The Alan and Simone Hartman Collection sale, 14 December 2023. Courtesy Bonhams.

Global auction house Bonhams announced total sales of U.S. $1.14 billion in 2023, declaring it 'the best-ever result in the company's 230-year history.'

Sales were up 14% on 2022 led by the sale of a 1967 Ferrari 412P Berlinetta for $30.3 million and the Bedchamber Sword of Tipu Sultan for $17.8 million.

The artworks that fetched the greatest sums were Paul Signac's Sisteron (1902) for $8.6 million and Claude Monet's La Seine près de Giverny (1888) for $6.4 million, a fraction of the price paid for the most expensive artworks at Christie's and Sotheby's.

Liang-Lin Chen selling Sanyu's Femme nue sur un tapis (Nude on Tapestry) (1929) for $24.2 million.

Liang-Lin Chen selling Sanyu's Femme nue sur un tapis (Nude on Tapestry) (1929) for $24.2 million.

Christie's sales fell $2.2 billion to a projected $6.2 billion in 2023. They attributed much of the decline to last year's $1.6 billion sale of works from Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen's Collection, a huge, anomalous win they could not replicate this year.

CEO Guillaume Cerutti described 2023 as 'a paradoxical year for Christie's'.

Cerutti blamed 'a challenging macro-environment and the art market contraction' for the lower sales total but said they saw 'an increase in private sales and a strong influx of new and younger clients at auction.'

Christie's private sales rose 5%, while new buyers constituted 35% of total clients.

Christie's top lot this year was Claude Monet's Le bassin aux nymphéas (1919), which sold for $74 million, followed by Henri Rousseau's Les Flamants (1910) for $43.5 million.

Gustav Klimt, Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) (1917-1918 sold at Sotheby's for $139.4 million.

Gustav Klimt, Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) (1917-1918 sold at Sotheby's for $139.4 million.

Market leader Sotheby's is projecting its 2023 sales to hold steady at $8 billion.

'While the art and luxury markets are not immune to the more challenging market context, we see continued global demand for works of the finest quality, with exceptional provenance, and that are fresh to market,' said Sotheby's CEO Charles F. Stewart.

Pablo Picasso's Femme à la montre (1932) was the most expensive work sold at a Sotheby's auction this year, fetching $139.4 million. Gustav Klimt's Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) (1917–18) came next at $108.5 million.

Following a record year in 2022, Phillips' sales plunged 39% year-on-year in the first half of 2023. They have not yet reported their sales total for 2023 but noted that their highest selling lot was Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild (636), which fetched $35 million. —[O]

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