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Christie’s announced a projected sales total of $2.1 billion for the first half of 2025, matching its H1-2024 figure. While art categories like Impressionist, modern, and Old Masters saw modest growth—Old Masters sales rose 15% to $55 million—luxury categories (handbags, watches, cars, jewelry) surged nearly 30% to $468 million, now accounting for 22% of the total. Notable sales included René Magritte’s *La reconnaissance infinite* (1933) for £10.3 million and Piet Mondrian’s *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Grey, Yellow, Black, and Blue* (1922) for $46.7 million. Guaranteed lots remained low at 1.5%, and the sell-through rate held steady at 88%.

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Christie’s opened New York’s fall marquee auctions with a $690 million evening sale across 79 lots, surpassing the pre-sale low estimate of $534.7 million. The doubleheader included the Robert and Patricia Ross Weis collection and a 20th-century sale, with works by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Rothko, and others. The sell-through rate was 97% by value and 96% by lot, marking a 41% increase from May’s auctions. Separately, Sperone Westwater, a New York gallery that championed artists like Bruce Nauman and Francesco Clemente, announced it will close after 50 years. Art Basel Hong Kong also revealed its 2026 edition will feature 240 galleries from 42 countries.

christies takes 690 m at fall curtain raiser art basel hong kong announces 2026 details and more morning links for november 18 2025 1234762067

Christie’s opened New York’s fall marquee auctions with a $690 million evening sale across 79 lots, surpassing the pre-sale low estimate of $534.7 million. The doubleheader included the Robert and Patricia Ross Weis collection, featuring works by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, and Rothko, followed by a 20th-century sale. The auction achieved a 97% sell-through rate by value and a 96% by lot, marking a 41% increase from May’s auctions. Separately, Sperone Westwater gallery announced it will close after 50 years, and Art Basel Hong Kong revealed details for its 2026 edition featuring 240 galleries.

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Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips reported their first-half 2025 auction sales, with Christie's leading at nearly $1.5 billion (down 1.9% year-over-year), Sotheby's at $1.2 billion (down 14%), and Phillips at $190.1 million (down 24.5%). The top lot was Piet Mondrian's *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue* (1922), sold for $47.6 million from Len Riggio's collection. Separately, the British Museum announced its inaugural ball on October 18, promoted by director Nicholas Cullinan, and Sotheby's opened its first public art exhibition in Abu Dhabi featuring works by van Gogh, Kahlo, and others. UNESCO launched a Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects, and Heritage Auctions sold part of Guillermo del Toro's "Bleak House" collection for $1.65 million.

Who was Hilma? Af Klint exhibition to highlight exclusion of women from abstract art

The Swedish artist Hilma af Klint is receiving her first major solo exhibition in France, organized by the Grand Palais and the Pompidou Centre. The show focuses on her "Paintings for the Temple," a series of groundbreaking abstract works created years before male peers like Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian claimed to have invented the movement. Af Klint, a mystic who believed she was guided by higher spirits, famously ordered her work to be hidden for 20 years after her death, convinced the world was not yet ready for her vision.

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On Public Domain Day 2026, works from 1930 entered the U.S. public domain, including art by Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee, José Clemente Orozco, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Notable artworks now free to use include Mondrian's *Composition With Red, Blue, and Yellow*, Klee's *Tierfreundschaft*, Orozco's *Prometheus*, and Taeuber-Arp's *Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angles*, as well as pieces by Philip Guston, Marc Chagall, and Edward Hopper from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Literary works like Sigmund Freud's *Civilization and Its Discontents* and William Faulkner's *As I Lay Dying*, films such as *All Quiet on the Western Front*, and musical compositions including "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Georgia on My Mind" also entered the public domain, along with the original Betty Boop character and early *Blondie* comics.

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Gustav Klimt's portrait of Elisabeth Lederer topped the list of the most expensive artworks sold at auction in 2025, achieving $236.3 million at Sotheby's New York on November 18—far exceeding its $150 million estimate and setting a new record for the artist. The painting came from the collection of the late Leonard Lauder, who died in June at age 92. Other top lots included two more Klimts from Lauder's collection, a newly offered Basquiat, and a record-setting Frida Kahlo work, alongside notable sales by van Gogh, Rothko, Mondrian, Monet, and Picasso, with many of the highest prices achieved during the blockbuster November auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's.

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Artnet News rounds up the standout auction moments of 2025, highlighting both triumphs and disappointments. M.F. Husain's *Untitled (Gram Yatra)* (1954) smashed expectations at Christie's, selling for $13.8 million—more than double the artist's previous record and the first South Asian Modern work to exceed $10 million. In contrast, Piet Mondrian's *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue* (1922) fell short of its $50 million estimate at Christie's, missing the artist's auction record, while Alberto Giacometti's *Grande tête mince* (1955) failed to sell at Sotheby's despite a $70 million asking price, underscoring market volatility.

A brush with… Luc Tuymans—podcast

This podcast episode features an in-depth conversation with Belgian painter Luc Tuymans, born in 1958 in Mortsel and based in Antwerp. Tuymans discusses his transformative approach to painting, which draws from photographs, film, and media to explore subjects ranging from contemporary politics and historical events to everyday objects. He shares insights into his meticulous process, his influences including Piet Mondrian, Léon Spilliaert, Francisco de Goya, and David Lynch, and his concept of "authentic forgeries." The episode also highlights his current exhibitions: "Luc Tuymans: The Fruit Basket" at David Zwirner in New York and Los Angeles, and a presentation at the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.

How Alexander Calder Set Sculpture in Motion

Wie Alexander Calder die Skulptur in Bewegung setzte

The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris has launched a major retrospective titled "Rêver en Équilibre," dedicated to the American sculptor Alexander Calder. Featuring over 300 works, the exhibition traces Calder’s journey from his 1926 arrival in Paris to his invention of the "mobile," a term coined by Marcel Duchamp. The show includes iconic large-scale hanging sculptures like "Rouge triomphant," wire figures from his famous "Cirque Calder," and rarely seen private loans, alongside paintings and jewelry that highlight his engineering background and poetic approach to abstraction.

‘A love letter to drawing’

Harvard Art Museums has opened a fall exhibition titled “Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black,” featuring around 120 works from the 19th to 21st centuries by artists including Pablo Picasso, John Singer Sargent, Edgar Degas, Piet Mondrian, and Georges Seurat. The show focuses on drawings in chalk, charcoal, graphite, and crayon, curated by conservator Penley Knipe and curator Miriam Stewart, who spent over a year selecting rarely seen pieces from the museum’s collection. Highlights include a fragile Degas charcoal drawing, “After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself,” which underwent conservation treatment, and a display of materials such as a box of vine charcoal owned by Sargent. The exhibition also features videos of the curators experimenting with historical techniques, like erasing with bread, and includes a hands-on drawing area styled after a 19th-century academic studio.

The OG of Art Revolutions Comes to Santa Barbara Museum of Art

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) will host "The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Art" from October 5, 2025, to January 25, 2026. The exhibition, which marks the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, features masterworks by Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Piet Mondrian, Berthe Morisot, and Edvard Munch, drawn from the Dallas Museum of Art's renowned French Impressionist collection. It traveled to Mexico City before arriving in Santa Barbara, the only West Coast U.S. venue for the show, and will later travel to Nashville, Québec, and Richmond.

The OG of Art Revolutions Comes to Santa Barbara Museum of Art

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) will host "The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Art" from October 5, 2025, to January 25, 2026. The exhibition, which began at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2024, marks the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874 and features masterworks by Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Piet Mondrian, Berthe Morisot, and Edvard Munch. It traveled to Mexico City before arriving in Santa Barbara, the only West Coast U.S. venue for the show, which will later travel to Nashville, Québec, and Richmond.

christies marquee fall 20th century evening sale report 1234762038

Christie’s fall marquee 20th-century evening sales on Monday night generated a combined $690 million across two auctions, far exceeding the pre-sale low estimate of $534.7 million. The first sale featured 18 lots from the collection of the late Robert and Patricia Ross Weis, including works by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, and Rothko, while the second 62-lot sale included pieces by Calder, Hockney, Chagall, and Giacometti. Bidding wars drove 16 lots to sell at or above their high estimates, with adviser Ralph DeLuca winning several high-profile battles, including a Matisse painting for $32.3 million and a Max Ernst sculpture for $20.2 million. The sell-through rate was 97% by value and 96% by lot, with only one withdrawn lot and three unsold works.

christies marquee fall 20th century evening sale report 1234762038

Christie’s fall marquee 20th century evening sales on Monday night brought in a combined $690 million with fees, well above the pre-sale low estimate of $534.7 million. The double-header auction included 18 lots from the collection of the late Robert and Patricia Ross Weis, featuring works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, and Mark Rothko, followed by a 62-lot sale with pieces by Alexander Calder, David Hockney, and Alberto Giacometti. The sell-through rate was 97% by value and 96% by lot, with only one lot withdrawn and three failing to sell. Notable bidding wars involved adviser Ralph DeLuca, who secured Henri Matisse’s "Figure et bouquet (Tête ocre)" for $32.3 million and Marc Chagall’s "Le songe du Roi David" after intense competition.

New book digs into the little-known gallery that brought Modern art to America

Researcher Julia May Boddewyn has published a new book, 'The Valentine Gallery: The Forgotten Story of Valentine Dudensing, Matisse, Picasso, and the US Market for Modern Art (1926-1947)', which unearths the history of a pivotal but overlooked New York gallery. Founded a century ago, the F. Valentine Dudensing Gallery was responsible for introducing European Modernism to America, hosting the first US solo shows for icons like Joan Miró and Piet Mondrian, and organizing the American debut of Picasso’s 'Guernica'.

From Mondrian to Man Ray, Here Are the Best-Sellers at Auction So Far This Year

The article reports on the best-selling lots at auction in the first half of 2025, covering Old Masters, Impressionist and Modern, and Postwar categories. Key sales include a pair of Francesco Guardi views of Venice that sold for $10.5 million at Sotheby's New York, a Piet Mondrian abstraction from the estate of Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio that fetched nearly $50 million, and a François-Xavier Lalanne rhinoceros-shaped desk that tripled its high estimate after a 13-minute bidding war. The data is drawn from the Artnet Intelligence Report Mid-Year Review 2025.

From Mondrian to Man Ray, Here Are the Best-Sellers at Auction So Far This Year

The article analyzes the best-selling artworks at auction in the first half of 2025, covering Old Masters, Impressionist and Modern, and Postwar categories. Notable sales include a pair of Francesco Guardi views of Venice that sold for $10.5 million at Sotheby’s New York, a Piet Mondrian abstraction from the estate of Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio that fetched just under $50 million, and a monumental rhinoceros-shaped desk by François-Xavier Lalanne that more than tripled its high estimate after a 13-minute bidding war. The report highlights that Old Masters sales were up 24% year-over-year, while top Impressionist and Modern lots saw lower prices compared to 2024.

Model masterpieces by Eduardo Paolozzi to be auctioned this week

Several works by Scottish-Italian artist Eduardo Paolozzi, gifted to his longtime collaborator and model maker Ray Hardinge Campbell Watson, are being auctioned at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh. The collection includes a bronze statue titled *Hermes/Mondrian Head – 1996* (estimate £10,000–£15,000), along with plaster sculptures, prints, and folio sets, many bearing personal inscriptions. The sale reflects a creative partnership that spanned over thirty years, during which Paolozzi and Watson collaborated on major projects such as the Tottenham Court Road murals for London Underground and a Pizza Express mural in the late 1960s.

NCI ARTworks to host Ken Knight art exhibition opening

NCI ARTworks is hosting an exhibition opening for international contemporary artist Ken Knight on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at its gallery in Peru. Knight will join via video to discuss his works, including recent pieces created in Portugal. The exhibition features a collaboration between Knight and contemporary artist Lorena Malm, where Knight's Mondrian-inspired works are enhanced by Malm's brushwork and layering techniques. The collaborative artwork will be on display and available for purchase through March at the NCI ARTworks Gallery in the Westclox building and at the Starved Rock Country Welcome Center in Utica.

Hilma af Klint - all exhibitions and events about the artist

The Grand Palais in Paris has announced a major monographic exhibition dedicated to the Swedish pioneer Hilma af Klint, running from May 6 to August 30, 2026. This comprehensive retrospective aims to showcase the artist's visionary abstract works, which predated the recognized beginnings of the abstract movement by several years.

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Christie’s has secured the collection of Robert F. Weis and Patricia G. Ross Weis for its November sales in New York, with 80 lots valued at over $180 million. The collection spans Cubism to Abstract Expressionism and includes major works by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, and Rothko, with top estimates reaching $50 million. The Weis family, founders of Weis Markets, assembled the collection over more than seventy years, and 18 lots will be sold in a single-owner sale ahead of Christie’s 20th-century evening sale.

The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis

The collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis, assembled over more than 50 years, will be offered at Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art auctions in New York this November. The collection features major works by modern masters including Rothko, Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, and Miró, reflecting the couple’s intellectual rigor and shared passion for modernism.

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A newly translated English edition of Gilles Deleuze's 1981 seminars on painting, originally published in French as 'Sur la peinture' in 2023, has been released by the University of Minnesota Press. Translated by Charles J. Stivale, the eight lectures explore what concepts painting can offer to philosophy, rather than the reverse. Deleuze discusses terms like catastrophe, the diagram, and figure, focusing on artists such as Titian, Turner, Cézanne, van Gogh, Klee, Mondrian, Pollock, and Bacon, offering a chaotic yet magnificent counterpoint to his more systematic book 'Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation'.

Roaring: Art, Fashion, and the Automobile in France, 1918–1939

The Saint Louis Art Museum is presenting "Roaring: Art, Fashion, and the Automobile in France, 1918–1939," a major exhibition on view from April 12 to July 27, 2025. Curated by Genevieve Cortinovis, the show brings together automobiles, haute couture, painting, sculpture, photography, film, and decorative arts to explore the intertwined evolution of fashion and car design in early 20th-century France. Highlights include a 1917 painting by Henri Matisse depicting the view from his Renault, juxtapositions of Alfa Romeo and Citroën logos with works by Piet Mondrian and Charles Loupot, and a c. 1927 dress by Suzanne Talbot inspired by Tutankhamun's funerary mask. The exhibition draws heavily from local and midwestern collections, including the Missouri Historical Society.

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Christie's reported that its auction sales for the first half of 2025 totaled $2.1 billion, identical to the same period last year, suggesting the art market may be stabilizing. However, the $2.1 billion figure marked a 22 percent drop from the first half of 2023, indicating stabilization at a lower level. The house sold seven of the top 10 works at auction, led by Piet Mondrian's *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black, and Blue* (1921) for $47.6 million from the collection of Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio. Luxury sales rose 29 percent, while Old Master sales increased 15 percent, but Asian art and Classics fell 28 percent and 32 percent respectively. The Americas led buyer activity at 45 percent, followed by EMEA at 34 percent and APAC at 21 percent.