Frieze Los Angeles launched with significant early momentum as Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel acquired three quilts by artist Yvonne Wells from Fort Gansevoort before VIP hours officially began. The fair's opening day saw robust activity, including the $3.7 million sale of an Ed Ruscha painting, while major galleries like Pace Prints and Opera Gallery announced strategic expansions into Los Angeles and Houston respectively.
Phillips has unveiled the lineup for its upcoming Modern and Contemporary art sales in London, scheduled for March 5 and 7. The auctions are headlined by a significant group of Scandinavian masterworks from the collection of former US Ambassador John L. Loeb, led by Vilhelm Hammershøi’s "Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table" (1900), estimated at up to £2 million. Other major highlights include a rare Andy Warhol "Mao" painting, a Banksy work formerly owned by Robin Williams, and pieces by Tracey Emin, El Anatsui, and Donald Judd.
Major auction houses including Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips are experiencing a significant shift as luxury goods—such as cars, watches, handbags, and jewelry—see explosive growth while fine art sales decline. In 2025, fine art sales at the 'Big Three' fell by 35% to $7.04 billion, whereas luxury auction sales rose 18% to $1.84 billion. This trend is most visible at Sotheby’s, where luxury now accounts for a third of total revenue, driven by massive private sales and strategic expansions into sectors like collector cars.
Marilyn Minter has been named the 28th recipient of the International Artist Award by the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. The artist, celebrated for her feminist works that merge painting and photography, will be honored during the center's annual Ranch Week in July. The selection highlights Minter's meticulous technical process and her long-standing commitment to art education as a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts.
Sotheby's has increased its buyer's premiums globally, with the new fee structure taking effect on February 13. The changes mean buyers of lower-value lots will pay higher rates, with the premium for works sold in New York for up to $2 million rising from 27% to 28%. This move follows similar adjustments by rivals Christie's and Phillips, as auction houses seek to bolster revenue during a prolonged art market downturn. Sotheby's also recently raised $900 million through art-backed loans via securitization.
Peter Campus, a pioneering video artist, has a new exhibition at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. The show features his early work, including the intense 1978 video 'Head of a Man with Death on His Mind,' alongside his recent 'philips quartet' (2023–24), a series of four landscape videos from his home on Long Island. The exhibition highlights his career-long themes of self-reflection, time, and mortality.
A new book titled 'Trespass' introduces the work of photographer Mark Cohen, known for his invasive, close-quarters street photography primarily in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Cohen's method involved using flash and fast color film to capture unsuspecting subjects, often leading to physical altercations, and his images are characterized by extreme blur and sudden points of sharp focus.
A series of significant artworks are heading to auction in February, led by an early Artemisia Gentileschi self-portrait making its auction debut at Christie's New York with an estimate of $2.5m-$3.5m. Other highlights include Rembrandt's last privately-held animal drawing, 'Young Lion Resting', at Sotheby's New York ($15m-$20m estimate), a Judy Chicago print of Mary, Queen of Scots at Phillips, and an Odilon Redon work on paper at Artcurial Paris.
The Korea Art Authentication and Appraisal Institute (KAAAI) released its "2025 Art Market Analysis Report" on January 21, 2026, revealing that the Korean art market grew 5.16% in total auction sales to 142.7 billion won, despite a decline in the number of lots offered. The global market saw a similar trend: combined sales at Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips rose 11.1% to $4.56 billion, but the number of works sold fell by 33.3%. Demand concentrated on high-priced blue-chip works by artists like Gustav Klimt, Claude Monet, Mark Rothko, René Magritte, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, while ultra-contemporary art sales plunged 39.1%.
The New Museum in New York has announced that its OMA-designed expansion will open to the public on March 21, following nearly a decade of planning and a two-year closure. The 60,000-square-foot addition, located next to the original flagship on Bowery Street, doubles the institution's footprint and features new residency studios, exhibition spaces, a restaurant, a forum, and a Sky Room. The inaugural exhibition, "New Humans: Memories of the Future," will showcase 150 artists including Sophia Al-Maria, Meriem Bennani, Hito Steyerl, Tau Lewis, and Jamian Juliano-Villani, alongside permanent commissions by Tschabalala Self and Sarah Lucas. The building, designed by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas of OMA with executive architect Cooper Robertson, is one of the few museums worldwide designed by two Pritzker Prize winners.
The New Museum in New York will reopen on March 21 after a two-year closure, following a major expansion designed by OMA’s Shohei Shigematsu with Rem Koolhaas that adds 60,000 square feet, nearly doubling exhibition space. The reopening weekend offers free admission and features new commissions by Tschabalala Self, Klára Hosnedlová, and Sarah Lucas, along with the inaugural exhibition “New Humans: Memories of the Future” showcasing over 200 artists. Separately, Phillips will auction the collection of former US Ambassador to Denmark John L. Loeb Jr., comprising the largest private trove of Danish art, with highlights by Vilhelm Hammershøi, Bertha Wegmann, P. S. Krøyer, and Anna Ancher, expected to exceed $12 million.
The New Museum in New York will reopen on March 21, 2026, after a two-year closure for a major expansion. Designed by OMA / Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas, the project adds 60,000 square feet to the existing SANAA-designed building, bringing the total footprint to nearly 120,000 square feet. New features include expanded exhibition space, a 74-seat Forum, an enlarged Sky Room, artist commissions by Tschabalala Self, Klára Hosnedlová, and Sarah Lucas, a larger bookstore, and a restaurant by Henry Rich with executive chef Julia Sherman. The reopening weekend will offer free admission funded by trustee Charlotte Feng Ford, and the museum will debut the exhibition “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” featuring over 200 artists including Francis Bacon, Salvador Dalí, and contemporary figures like Meriem Bennani and Hito Steyerl.
The New Museum on Manhattan's Lower East Side will reopen to the public on March 21, 2025, after a two-year closure for an $82 million expansion designed by OMA's Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas with executive architect Cooper Robertson. The expansion adds 61,930 square feet—including 9,600 square feet of gallery space, education facilities, artists' studios, and event spaces—bringing the total footprint to 119,600 square feet. The new building will be named after the late philanthropist and curator Toby Devan Lewis. The reopening will feature site-specific commissions by Tschabalala Self, Sarah Lucas, and Klára Hosnedlová, and a building-wide thematic exhibition, 'New Humans: Memories of the Future,' with works by over 200 modern and contemporary artists.
Bonhams, the UK-based auction house, reported a nearly 90% surge in pre-tax losses to £213 million ($286.3 million) in 2024, alongside a 9% revenue decline to £176 million ($236.6 million), according to filings with Companies House. The losses were driven by £153 million in impairment charges due to reduced cash flow forecasts, reflecting a write-down on the investment value held by former owner Epiris. The house was sold to Pemberton Asset Management in October 2024, and subsequently saw a leadership overhaul, with Seth Johnson appointed CEO, Liese Thomas as CFO, and Jennifer Babington as COO, replacing Chabi Nouri and Céline Assimon.
The National Portrait Gallery in London has acquired the only surviving photographs of 19th-century mathematician Ada Lovelace, a group of three daguerreotypes that were originally offered at Bonhams in June 2025 with an estimate of £80,000 to £120,000. The lot was withdrawn from auction and the museum secured it via a private treaty sale, a confidential negotiation process that allows institutions to purchase significant artworks directly from private owners. Two of the daguerreotypes were taken by French photographer Antoine Claudet around 1843, the year Lovelace published her foundational paper on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, while the third, by an unknown photographer, reproduces an 1852 portrait by Henry Wyndham Phillips showing Lovelace near the end of her life.
Artnet News examines the top five auction results for Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose meteoric rise and tragic death at age 27 fueled a legendary market. The list includes works such as "Versus Medici" (1982), which sold for $50.82 million at Sotheby's in 2021; "El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile)" (1983), which fetched $67.1 million at Christie's in 2023; and "Untitled" (1982), which reached $85 million at Phillips in 2022. The article highlights the artist's synthesis of graffiti and Renaissance aesthetics, his relationships with figures like Andy Warhol, and the explosive growth of his market over the past decade.
14-year-old artist Andres Valencia will open his first solo exhibition, "Profiles in Color," at the Nassau County Museum of Art on March 21, 2026. The show features his Cubist-inspired large-scale portraits, which blend bold colors and geometric forms. Valencia, who began painting at age five, first gained attention at Art Miami in 2021 and has since published an art book, launched a limited-edition print collection with Mourlot Editions, and been collected by celebrities including Eva Longoria and Sofía Vergara.
David Hockney's double portrait *Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy* (1968) sold for $44.34 million at Christie's New York on November 17, 2025, just shy of its $50 million high estimate. The sale ranks among the highest prices ever for the artist at auction. The article also reviews Hockney's top five auction results, including *The Splash* (1966), which fetched $29.92 million at Sotheby's London in 2020, and *Nichols Canyon* (1980), which sold for $41.07 million at Phillips New York in 2020. All five of Hockney's most expensive works have sold within the past seven years, reflecting sustained demand for his early and mid-career masterpieces.
2025 has been a landmark year for dinosaur fossils in the art world, marked by high-profile sales, seizures, and ethical controversies. In November, a pair of Allosaurus fossils and a Stegosaurus skeleton worth £12 million ($15.6 million) were seized by the UK's National Crime Agency from Binghai Su, a Chinese national linked to a major money-laundering case in Singapore. The fossils had been purchased at Christie's Jurassic Icons auction in 2024. Meanwhile, Sotheby's sold a juvenile Ceratosaurus fossil for $30.5 million in July, far exceeding its $6 million estimate, and Phillips entered the dinosaur market for the first time, selling a juvenile Triceratops skeleton for $5.4 million in November. The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever, a Stegosaurus named Apex bought by hedge fund titan Kenneth Griffin for $44.6 million in 2024, was loaned to the American Museum of Natural History.
After a turbulent start marked by gallery closures and market contraction, the art market in 2025 rebounded decisively, driven by a secondary-market surge in high-quality consignments. Major auction houses reported strong year-end results: Sotheby's projects $7 billion in consolidated sales (up 17%), Christie's expects $6.2 billion (up 7%), and Phillips reported $927 million (up 10%). Key sales included the $272 million Leonard & Louise Riggio collection at Christie's, the $527.5 million Lauder collection at Sotheby's (led by a $236.4 million Gustav Klimt), and the $136 million Karpidas sales. The year began quietly but gained momentum after summer, with deep bidding and strategic pricing driving a 26% increase in Sotheby's auction revenue and an 11% overall rise in fine art sales across Old Masters, Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary categories.
The article reports on the ten most expensive auction lots of 2025, led by Gustav Klimt's 'Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer)' (1914), which sold for $236.36 million at Sotheby's, making it the second-most-expensive artwork ever sold at auction. The top end of the market rebounded after a quieter 2024, with the 100 most expensive lots totaling $2.13 billion, up from $1.8 billion the previous year. Nine of the top ten lots were sold during the marquee New York sales in November, where Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips together generated over $2 billion and set 16 artist auction records. The list includes multiple Klimt works from the collection of American philanthropist Leonard A. Lauder, as well as a Vincent van Gogh still life that sold for $62.71 million.
Sotheby's achieved a white-glove auction of Bing Crosby's personal collection in New York, selling all 100% of lots for $6.7 million against an estimate of $3.9–$6.3 million. Highlights included musical arrangements from Crosby's 1954 film *White Christmas* ($19,050), a Tiffany & Co cigarette box gifted by John F. Kennedy ($15,240), a Sheraton-style grand piano from *High Society* ($95,250), and a Fabergé sapphire mouse ($355,600). Top prices were led by paintings by Sir Alfred James Munnings ($1.2 million) and Charles Marion Russell.
Phillips reported global sales of $927 million for 2025, a 10% increase over the previous year. Auction sales accounted for $725 million, while private sales surged 66% to $202 million. The auction house attributed growth to the launch of Priority Bidding, a platform offering reduced buyer's premiums for early bids, which led to a 275% increase in early selling bids. Phillips achieved an 88% sell-through rate by lot, with seven white-glove auctions and over 110 world auction records. Notable sales included a Patek Philippe watch for $17.6 million and Francis Bacon's *Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer* (1967) for $16 million. The luxury watch division generated $290 million, its highest annual total, and the Dropshop platform attracted many first-time and younger buyers.
Hundreds gathered on a cold Monday night in New York at Phillips auction house and the Metropolitan Club to celebrate the life and legacy of Walter Robinson, the beloved art-world figure who died in February 2025. The event, organized by the New York Academy of Art as part of its annual “Take Home a Nude” fundraiser, featured silent and live auctions, a posthumous honorary doctorate awarded to Robinson, and the announcement of the Walter Robinson Scholarship funded by auction proceeds. The evening raised over $800,000, with works by students and acclaimed artists like Richard Prince and Kiki Smith on offer, and Robinson’s painting *Blood on the Sun* (2018) selling for $35,000.
Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, Netherlands, is hosting 'Jacob Lawrence: African American Modernist,' the first European retrospective of the American artist Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000). The exhibition spans his six-decade career from the 1930s, featuring 70 paintings, 25 drawings, and 75 prints, along with photographs and archival materials. It includes works from his celebrated series on the Great Migration, Builders, World War II, and historical figures like Harriet Tubman and Toussaint L'Ouverture, as well as new works by contemporary artists Barbara Earl Thomas and Nina Chanel Abney inspired by Lawrence.
The Phillip Island Contemporary Exhibition Space Inc (PICES) has launched its 2025-26 Summer Art Exhibitions at the Berninneit Art Gallery in Cowes, Australia. The first of three exhibitions, 'Small Works,' features 50 affordable and unique pieces by artists from Bass Coast and beyond, including local painters Joe La Pira and Peter Walker. The program continues with 'Contempora 1' and 'Contempora 2,' showcasing 64 emerging and established artists across various media through February 1, 2026.
The article, published by TheValue.com in partnership with AIG, provides expert analysis and insights from New York’s November auction week. It covers key sales, market trends, and notable results from major auction houses including Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips, with commentary from specialists and market observers.
The art market experienced a turbulent 2025, beginning with a 12% decline in sales from 2024, following a 3% drop in 2023, as reported by the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. Major auction houses Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips saw average sales fall 6% in the first half of the year. However, the market rebounded by autumn, with strong sales at London and Paris art fairs and a 15% year-on-year increase in auction sales at the three main houses by December, according to Pi-eX. Key events included Sotheby’s failed sale of Alberto Giacometti’s *Grand tête mince* in May, followed by a record-breaking $236 million sale of Gustav Klimt’s *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* in November, and a $31.4 million record for François-Xavier Lalanne’s *Hippopotame Bar*.
Collector Patricia Poon and artist Angel Hui are among the figures highlighted in a series examining how Hong Kong women artists are gaining market share and recognition. The article reports that major auction houses Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips have moved their Asia headquarters to Hong Kong and now employ young women in key auctioneering roles. It notes a sharp increase in women artists featured in Chinese auctions, from 79 in 2019 to 231 in 2024, with 201 of those in Hong Kong. Works by artists like Firenze Lai, Elaine Chiu, and Kristy M Chan have performed strongly at auction, and Phillips has made promoting Hong Kong women artists a key priority.
France returned an extremely rare 70-million-year-old Tarbosaurus bataar skeleton and 30 other paleontological finds to Mongolia on Monday. The fossils were looted from the Gobi Desert by a European trafficking network, smuggled via South Korea, and confiscated by French customs in 2015. At a ceremony in Paris, French Public Accounts Minister Amelie de Montchalin handed the items to Mongolia’s Culture Minister Undram Chinbat. The cache includes dinosaur eggs and the prized skeleton, worth over $800,000 at the time of seizure and now valued two to three times higher.