While speculative sales of contemporary artworks and works by young artists fell in 2024, women artists, lower-value works, and sales in New York rose, according to the 2025 edition of the Hiscox Artists Top 100 (HAT 100) report.
In 2024, sales of contemporary artworks fell 27 percent, to $698 million in 2024. That figure is down from the $956 million reported in 2023.
Flipping appears to have fallen out of favor, with total sales of “wet paint” artworks (ones sold at auction within two years of being created) by artists under 45 falling 64 percent, to $14.1 million, down from $38.8 million in 2023. The HAT 100 report also noted that the number of works in this category fell to 698 lots from 924 in 2013, and that nearly one-in-five of these did not sell. That’s “the highest proportion in seven years,” the report said.
“With sales at a seven-year low, the speculative fever that took hold in 2022 and 2023 is now ended,” said the report, published by a global specialist insurer Hiscox, with research done by art market research and analysis firm ArtTactic.
Robert Reed, head of art and private clients for Hiscox UK, called these percentage changes “astonishing,” but noted that the HAT 100 report focuses on auction sales data for works of art produced after 2000—”a small segment of a tiny market” compared to the overall art market, the luxury market, or especially a multinational company like Walmart.
“I don’t want to get too obsessed with some of the percentages, because actually, you’re talking relatively small amounts,” Reed told ARTnews. “And relatively small amounts can make quite a big percentage change in a small market.”
Even within that smaller segment of the overall art market, the total sales value of post-2000 artworks priced at over $1 million fell by 41 percent, and the number of these high-value lots also fell 31 percent compared to 2003.
Most of those 2024 sales (51 percent) took place in New York, up from 42 percent the previous year. London also increased its market share to 25 percent compared to 21 percent in 2023.
As a result, sales in Hong Kong fell 52 percent, the lowest level since 2018. The volume of lots sold dropped 24 percent, and the city’s market share declined to 21 percent, down from 32 percent in 2023.
On the positive side, Yayoi Kusama continued her popularity on the auction block, with the highest total sales by a contemporary artist for the second year at $58.8 million. Reed credited the results to the artist’s well-known personal brand with global recognition. “I think that inevitably sustains your market,” he told ARTnews. “And also, she does produce some show-stopping works public spaces, that really do get recognition in a way that an artist producing paintings won’t.”
One big change between 2023 and 2024 was the rise in sales for works by French sculptor François-Xavier Lalanne, who had the second-highest auction sales total by value ($52.9 million), and works by his wife Claude Lalanne, who had the fourth-highest total for female artists ($9.75 million).
“If you said the year before [Les Lalanne] were going to feature so much in 2024, no one would have predicted it,” Reed said.
A big factor in these results was the Christie’s New York auction dedicated to works by François-Xavier last October, which included 70 sculptures from the personal collection of the couple’s daughter, Dorothée. Shortly afterward, François-Xavier’s Herd of Elephants in the Trees Table (2001) sold for $11.6 million with fees during the Sydell Miller evening sale at Sotheby’s New York last November.
Other positive highlights from the HAT 100 report include a 12 percent increase in the number of artists offered by Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips, to 2,602; and more women artists among the auctions among the three houses (822 in 2024 compared to 728 in 2023).
When asked about what the results of the HAT 100 report indicate for auction sales this year—especially after the fires in Los Angeles, the impact of the new tariffs for imports to the US, the ongoing stock market volatility, and predictions of a global recession—Reed compared the current “seismic” moment to aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
“People will just stop buying and people will stop selling,” Reed said, noting the number of works priced at $10 million or above “completely dried up” in the 12 months after the investment bank filed for bankruptcy, with only two ten-figure lots selling the year afterwards. “The sales volume will really shrink. And then the market always comes back.”
After Brexit, Hiscox is much more conscious about the movement of its own corporate art collection of 1,000 pieces, spread across its 30 offices, and the likelihood of incurring import taxes if items are moved in and out of its European offices. Reed said concerns about a trade war and tariffs will also affect where artworks will be consigned with auction houses. “There’ll be some markets where it’ll be easier to sell art than others,” he said.
On the bright side, 2025 will also have opportunities for anyone still looking for new acquisitions. “If you’re a buyer, this is a buyer’s market,” Reed said. “You are going to have time to make your decisions; you’re not going to be pressurized by dealers.”
“For those that are buying, life is going to be sweet for the next year. The choice might not be as good as it was normally, but life will be sweet.”
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