Leading international auction houses Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips have more than recovered from the pandemic slump and are exceeding pre-pandemic sales levels, a new market report has revealed.

Data published by London-based analytics company ArtTactic showed that in the first half of this year, global sales at the three houses totaled $5.9 billion, 230 percent up year-on-year, and also 3.5 percent higher than the first half of 2019.

Social distancing has transformed the business, with online sales enjoying a huge growth, which had, the report said, resulted in a wider acceptance of digital platforms as a serious sales tool, rather than an alternative option.

There has also been some global rebalancing, with New York continuing to dominate, but London slipping to third place behind Hong Kong, which is indicative of how Asia could hold the key to the future of the auction industry.

"China, and, more broadly, Asia, is going to be a strategic region for these auction houses going forward," Anders Petterson, ArtTactic's founder and managing director, told weekly business publication Barron's. "Existing buyers are now feeling more confident coming back in after having been dormant for 18 months. There are also new buyers coming in with a whole new energy."

Online auction had played a huge part in maintaining the business, he said, with the big three companies reporting digital sales totaling $670.6 million for the first half of the year, a 70 percent increase on figures from the same period one year ago, and a remarkable 870 percent improvement on the same time in 2019.

"I think in the past, online art sales were seen as sort of secondary," Petterson explained. "But physical and online sales are complementary and are being seen that way."

Online sales

New York has increased its market dominance from 44 percent a year ago to 45.1 percent, and Hong Kong now holds 22.2 percent, with London at third with 19.7 percent.

Figures published in the Financial Times from art market analyst PieX showed that despite the major growth of online sales, in-person sales were also recovering quickly, often with some bidding also being done online, while online-only sales were falling away.

"There is no doubt that it is the return of the live auction format on the traditional auction calendar that explains the growth in the first semester this year versus last year," Pi-eX chief executive Christine Bourron told the Financial Times, pointing out how online-only auctions fell from 73 percent in the first half of 2020, to 56 percent in 2021, as the new normal begins to emerge.

Her figures also reinforced the message of the shifting of the geographic sales axis, with overall sales between 2019 and 2021 down in the United States and United Kingdom, but rising by 47 percent in China, to $1.3 billion.