The art market is gearing up for a high-stakes spring season with major estate collections from S.I. Newhouse and Robert Mnuchin slated for auction at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, collectively valued at over half a billion dollars. Meanwhile, London’s spring marquee sales showed strong momentum, with Christie’s and Sotheby’s reporting significant year-over-year increases in their evening sale totals, despite a more modest performance from Phillips.
The article reports on a severe downturn in the art market during summer 2025, with gallery closures, declining auction sales, and widespread pessimism. Notable dealers Tim Blum and Adam Lindemann have shut their galleries, and a survey by France's Professional Committee of Art Galleries (CPGA) found 85% of respondents pessimistic about the sector's economic health, with turnover down 6% in 2024. The Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) canceled its October Art Show in New York, and some dealers are considering small business loans to cover costs. Meanwhile, galleries like Goodman Gallery are embracing e-commerce to adapt.
Pharrell Williams launched his own auction platform, Joopiter, after finding traditional auction houses ill-suited to sell his collection of fashion, jewelry, and timepieces. The platform has rapidly expanded from single-owner sales into a multi-category auction house, handling luxury goods, sports memorabilia, pop culture artifacts, and contemporary art, with a recent headline lot being a $5 million Triceratops skeleton named Trey.
Martha Stewart has curated a contemporary art sale for Joopiter, the auction platform founded by Pharrell Williams. Titled "The Contemporary Take," the auction runs from April 28 through May 6 and features nearly 50 artworks by leading artists, including Amy Sherald, Hank Willis Thomas, Adrian Ghenie, Alex Katz, Damien Hirst, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Stewart handpicked a selection of works for the Spring season, focusing on themes of growth, regeneration, and vitality. The sale marks Joopiter's first auction of contemporary art, following collection sales by Kim Jones, Kid Cudi, and Nigo.
On June 6, 2025, Artcurial Paris will host "Twenty One Contemporary," a curated auction dedicated exclusively to 21st-century art. The sale features works by artists such as Xavier Veilhan, Barthélémy Toguo, Aboudia, Thomas Houseago, and Guillaume Bresson, spanning experimental sculpture, painting, and works on paper. Highlights include Veilhan's machine-carved birch sculpture "The Neptunes" (2015), Toguo's large-scale watercolor "Homing Pigeon" (2005), and Bresson's photorealistic "Sans titre" (2010), with estimates ranging from €15,000 to €120,000.
Pharrell Williams has launched a new buy-it-now extension called Joopiter Marketplace, an offshoot of his existing auction platform Joopiter. The marketplace offers collectibles from Williams's personal archive—including Vivienne Westwood hats, KAWS sneakers, Gucci and Levi's jackets, and items from his fashion labels ICECREAM and Billionaire Boys Club—alongside pieces from other cultural figures. Additional sellers include artist Tom Sachs, gallerist Easy Otabor, jewelry designer Lorraine Schwartz, and music executive Steven Victor, with proceeds from some sales benefiting nonprofits like the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Rebuild Foundation, and the Virgil Abloh Foundation.
A 66-million-year-old Triceratops skeleton, nicknamed Trey, sold for $5.55 million at the online auction platform Joopiter. The fossil, excavated in 1993, had been on continuous public display at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center for three decades and represents the first dinosaur skeleton sold by Joopiter, a platform founded by Pharrell Williams.
Pharrell Williams's auction platform Joopiter has partnered with Martha Stewart for its first contemporary art sale, titled 'The Contemporary Take,' running through May 6. The 48-lot sale features works by blue-chip artists including George Condo, Jeff Koons, and Ed Ruscha, alongside emerging names like Tschabalala Self and Toyin Ojih Odutola. Stewart personally selected six lots, highlighting pieces by Amy Sherald, Damien Hirst, Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois, Roy Lichtenstein, and Alex Katz. Estimates range from $4,000 to $1.2 million, and early bidding has been active, with works by Amy Sherald and Roy Lichtenstein drawing significant attention.
Taiwanese Mandopop superstar Jay Chou has curated two simultaneous auctions on Pharrell Williams's platform Joopiter: one featuring 14 personal memorabilia items from his three-decade career, and another titled "The Contemporary Take: A Look With Jay Chou" offering 25 paintings and prints by international artists. Highlights include works by Oscar Yi Hou, Young-il Ahn, Daniel Richter, Hajime Sorayama, Diane Dal-Pra, Ernie Barnes, and Yoshitomo Nara. Bidding closes on October 31 for the art sale and November 4 for the memorabilia. Proceeds from the memorabilia sale will support a charitable initiative backed by Chou.
Martha Stewart has curated her first-ever art auction with Joopiter, Pharrell Williams' auction platform, titled "The Contemporary Take." The sale features nearly 50 works by leading contemporary artists including Andy Warhol, Amy Sherald, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Damien Hirst, and Ai Weiwei, running from April 28 through May 6. Highlights include Yiadom-Boakye's "Bark Scraper" (estimated $900,000–$1.2 million), Hirst's pillcase "Up at Dawn" ($500,000–$700,000), and works by George Condo, Esther Mahlangu, and Hank Willis Thomas.
JOOPITER, Pharrell Williams's auction platform, launches its first standalone tattoo auction titled 'Inked: Tattoos by Contemporary Artists,' featuring commissioned designs by sixteen artists including Derrick Adams, Thom Browne, Jeffrey Gibson, and the late Lawrence Weiner. The sale runs from October 22nd to 31st, 2025, with select designs previewed at Dover Street Market during Art Basel Paris. Curated by Sharon Coplan, each tattoo design is accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity, and a complete set will be reserved for institutional donation.
JOOPITER, the platform founded by Pharrell Williams, has launched a new auction titled "INKED: Tattoos by Contemporary Artists," curated by Sharon Coplan. The auction features sixteen international artists—including Sarah Andelman, Derrick Adams, Thom Browne, Jeffrey Gibson, Titus Kaphar, Marilyn Minter, Mickalene Thomas, and tattoo artist Dr. Woo—who each created a unique, signed drawing intended to be tattooed on skin or displayed as standalone artwork on paper. Each piece comes with a certificate of authenticity, and the buyer may choose to have the design tattooed or keep it as a collectible print.