Records fell, billons of dollars of art changed hands but still 2025 ended not with a bang but with a whimper as far as the major auction houses were concerned.
It took a flurry of major single-collection sales late in the year to lift the art market to an overall C-
on the HENI Auction Index after two years of D grades.
Among the more than 10 different metrics responsible for the modest rise were a fall in the number of lots bought in, meaning they failed to sell at auction, and a 13% increase in the value of fine art sales across the big three auction houses compared to 2024.
But the number crunching also revealed a major weakness in the reliance of the auction houses on the marquee week of sales in New York in the fall.
They alone generated a third of Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips' annual revenue powered by the sale of major collections including those built up by cosmetics heir Leonard Lauder and supermarket millionaires Robert and Patsy Ross Weis.
Read our full analysis here.
