Sotheby’s Hits a Home Run in The Breuer
4 min read · 24 Nov 2025
On Broadway it would be hailed as a hit. On Madison Avenue, Sotheby’s inaugural auction week in its new Breuer Building HQ was a home run.
The auction house presented nine sales in New York's marquee week that grossed almost $1.2 billion. That was 40% above the average of its comparable marquee sales. They scored an A+ grade on the HENI Auction Index and that was not just about the week's total.
Sotheby's A+ auctions were its strongest marquee week in New York since November 2021.
New artists’ auction records contributed to the auction house's flying start on Madison Avenue. They were no ordinary records.
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer inevitably starred in the Leonard Lauder evening sale on November 18, selling for $236.4m, with fees. It became the most expensive work of modern art to be sold at auction, and set a new record for the Austrian artist.
Frida Kahlo’s surreal self-portrait, El sueño (La cama) (1940), sold for $54.66m on November 20 in first of two sales titled “Exquisite Corpus”. It was an auction record for the Mexican artist and is now the most expensive work of art by any female artist.
Dorothea Tanning and Hans Bellmer's auction records also soared on the same night.
Overall, the number of new artist auction records set at Sotheby’s picked up to be back in line with the average.
The total number of lots on offer was up to at 763, and in line with the average number of lots in comparable sales.
The percentages of lots hammering above their low and high estimates saw significant increases to levels that are 10 percentage points higher than typical.
The average hammer to mid-estimate ratio jumped to 1.6, its highest level since November 2021, meaning that works on average hammered 60% above the average of their low and high estimates.
There were fewer works bought-in or withdrawn, another positive sign.
Many of the top lots were backed by guarantees or irrevocable bids. The percentage of lots with strong guarantees rose to 13%, which is 2.5 times more than usual, while the 6% of lots with weak guarantees was in line with the typical 5%.
Sotheby’s marquee sales were up from a C last November and a C again this May. The green shoots of recovery in the market first spotted earlier this year became more apparent in the mid-season New York sales in September.
Sotheby’s week suggests that the market’s recovery has gained traction, helped by modern-art star power.
The week generated $1.2 billion revenue, 40% above typical. The number of lots picked up too but remained in line with the average of comporable sales.
The number of new artists' auction records picked up to being back in line with average.
The percentages of lots hammering above their low and high estimates saw significant increases to levels that are 10 percentage points higher than typical.
The average hammer to mid-estimate ratio jumped to 1.6, Sotheby's highest level since November 2021, meaning that works on average hammered 60% above the average of their low and high estimates.
The percentage of lots with strong guarantees rose to 13%, which is 2.5 times more than usual, while 6% of lots had weak guarantees, in line with a typical 5%.
There were significantly fewer works being bought-in or withdrawn.
Methodology: for how the HENI Auction Index classifies sales, see here
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