Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips in the first half of 2026: 6.8 billion dollars at auction, up 70%
The three largest auction houses sold about 6.8 billion dollars between January and June 2026, according to ArtTactic, the highest first-half total since 2022. London more than doubled. The base was weak.
6.8 billion dollars. That is what Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips sold at auction between January and June 2026, fees included and car sales excluded, according to ArtTactic figures reported by The Art Newspaper on 10 July 2026. It is 70% more than a year earlier and the highest first-half total since 2022. Deloitte, counting the leading international houses, arrived at a similar 71%.
Christie's sold 3.4 billion dollars, up 71% from 2 billion. Sotheby's sold 2.8 billion dollars, also up 71%, from 1.6 billion. Phillips, far smaller, reached 505.4 million dollars, up 59% from 318 million. Sell-through, the share of lots that found a buyer, was 91%.
London was the surprise. Sales there rose 131% to 1.42 billion dollars, and about 28% of that came from a single sale: the Lewis Collection, sold by Sotheby's in June for about 390 million dollars. USA Art News called it the most expensive single-owner collection ever auctioned in Europe. Hong Kong grew almost 30% to 764 million dollars but lost share.
New York in May did the rest. Christie's top lot of the half was Constantin Brancusi's Danaïde, around 1913, at 107.6 million dollars. Counting art only, Christie's sold 2.7 billion dollars through June, up 78%, and Sotheby's 2.3 billion dollars, up 88%, according to the USA Art News analysis of 11 July 2026.
Careful with the percentages. The base was low: in the first half of 2025 Christie's had sold 2 billion dollars and Sotheby's 1.6 billion. And one collection, Lewis, carried a large slice of the total. ArtTactic still sees the recovery as wider than the headline lots, with a record 33,474 lots sold online.
Next test: the autumn sales in London, Hong Kong and New York, this time without a collection the size of Lewis to lean on.
If you follow these sales to price one artist, Unicorn Art Watch collects auction results for 100 masters. Unicorn Art Club buys one work per artist through a dedicated vehicle; the guide among the sources has the details.
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Sources
- The Art Newspaper, Auction houses made significant recoveries in 2026, ArtTactic report finds, 10 July 2026
- USA Art News, Auction houses post strong first-half 2026 results, but the recovery is narrow, 11 July 2026
- Finestre sull'Arte, Art market, Deloitte: auctions up 71% in the first half of 2026
- Unicorn Art Club, guide: how to invest in blue-chip art through Unicorn Art Club