Christie’s recorded £2.7 billion of sales in the first half of the year thanks to a 71 per cent surge in online sales and a continued passion for modern and contemporary art.
Demand from China as well as the traditional markets of Europe and the United States and new record prices for artists including Barnett Newman, Francis Bacon and Juan Gris pushed up results by 12 per cent in the past six months.
Sales of post-war and contemporary work reached an unprecedented £799.9 million — up 20 per cent over the same period in 2013.
And 51 works sold for more than $10 million (£5.8 million), including Francis Bacon’s Portrait of George Dyer Talking which set a world record for a single canvas by the artist when it sold for £42.2 million in February in London. His Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards made £47.7 million in New York.
Christie’s chief executive Steven Murphy said the auction house continued to lead at the top levels of the art market: “It is a new era of excitement and engagement about art and for art.”
He said there had been a “surge in engagement with art from Beijing to Los Angeles”.
Mr Murphy said: “Last year 30 per cent of new buyers came in via online and more than 11 per cent of these then migrated to live auctions.”
Under his leadership, the London auction house group, founded in 1766, has expanded into new markets including China and India.
Sales in Asia fell by eight per cent and sales of Asian art were down 22 per cent on the same time last year but the number of buyers there grew to account for 28 per cent of all business with 20 per cent of all new clients Asia-based. Online sales attracted buyers from 170 countries.
