Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 29 2026

At the start of the year, auction coverage typically focuses on retrospectives and outlooks, which kick off the third and final part of our season review. Melanie Gerlis highlights the extent to which large fortunes influence the art market in her report on single owner sales for the Financial Times (paywall): ‘What is new is the scale, in volume and value,’ says Caroline Sayan, president and CEO of the art advisers Cadell North America. Previously at Christie's for 25 years, she oversaw estate sales including the £835 million collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller in 2018, the year after the industrialist heir died. ‘Think of it as like planes landing. Before this time, there were smaller jets, individual planes, and it was easy to manoeuvre. Then, all of a sudden, these jumbo jets started coming in,’ she says. Statistics from the analysis firm ArtTactic show that in 2018, single-owner collections — predominantly estates — accounted for £1.7 billion (17 per cent) of auction totals, up from £600 million (7 per cent) in 2017. Since then, totals and percentages have surpassed this, with single-owner collections averaging £2.6bn in value and accounting for 23 per cent of auction sales in 2021-2025." It cannot be emphasised enough: almost a quarter of auction sales, and thus more than a tenth of the total art market volume, now comes from the holdings of one or two handfuls of people.

In a second round, Sotheby's has bundled and resold loans secured not only by works of art but also by cars, reports Daniel Cassady in Artnews: "The addition of collectible cars is the clearest signal of where Sotheby's sees the business heading. Rather than treating art lending as a niche service tied to auction activity, the company is positioning itself as a broader luxury-asset finance platform, capable of lending against everything from paintings to prized automobiles.“

Anne Reimers reports on last year's auction sales in London in the FAZ on 31 January: “The international art market has been on the upswing recently. However, London fell further behind New York last year. At Sotheby’s, this was not least due to the fact that the company concentrated its acquisitions on the major New York auctions in November, which were intended to mark the grand opening of its new headquarters in the Breuer building.”

Sotheby's is tightening the price screw, reports Carlie Porterfield in February in the Art Newspaper (possibly paywall): "Under the terms of Sotheby's new fee structure, the buyer's premium for sales in New York is increasing from 27% on lots priced at or above $1m to 28% for all works sold for hammer prices up to and including $2m (£1.5m in London).“

George Nelson raises the intriguing question of what will become of auction houses when the luxury segment overtakes the art sector in Artnews.

The London auctions in March went surprisingly well, Elisa Carollo analyses for the Observer: "If the £131 million total achieved at Sotheby's the previous evening suggested that the art market continues to move forward with remarkable composure—seemingly unfazed by wars, political fractures and a global economy unravelling in slow motion—Christie's set out to reinforce the point yesterday (5 March) with its three-session marquee evening sale. The proceedings unfolded largely without drama, following what often felt like a carefully prearranged script, ultimately delivering the auction house a combined total of £197,472,600 ($263,823,394). Across the three sales, 21 lots carried third-party guarantees securing their results—a 52 percent year-over-year rise.”

Drawing on publications by galleries and auction houses in the British equivalent of the Federal Gazette, Anna Brady and Anny Shaw conducted research for the Art Newspaper (possibly paywall): “All four major auction houses are ultimately owned by an offshore parent company, such as [Sotheby’s] Drahis, which means that the true, comprehensive picture of their finances is ultimately obscured.”

Katya Kazakina takes a look behind the closed doors of secret auctions for Artnet, whose latest Intelligence Report is available for download (PDF).

Art as a store of value and an instrument in wealth transfer is currently the driving force behind the auction scene, believes Scott Reyburn in the Art Newspaper (possibly paywall) in April: “This institutional interest is presumably encouraged by an awareness that, during the so-called Great Wealth Transfer, 1.2 million individuals will pass on around $31 trillion of assets to their heirs over the next decade. Just over 10% of the value of those assets will be made up of art and collectables, the Deloitte report estimates. This process is the main driver of whatever growth there is in the art auction market. [...] If London’s March auctions were anything to go by, the world’s ultra-rich will not be too bothered in New York in May if war is being waged in the Middle East or elsewhere.

Regarding the closure of the Munich auction house Neumeister, which was reported here last Monday, Brita Sachs notes in the FAZ (paywall): “Katrin Stoll earned great merit through her commitment to provenance research, particularly in coming to terms with her own firm’s history regarding its predecessor, Weinmüller, during the Nazi era. In the art trade, she earned admiration for this, but also caused unease, presumably because some feared she was stirring up trouble. Contrary to observers’ expectations, few followed her good example. The summer auction on 24 June will still take place as planned at Neumeister.”

Fair Warning, the organiser of ultra-exclusive auctions, has a new partner in Saara Pritchard. She and founder Loïc Gouzer discuss their plans in an interview with Daniel Cassady at Artnews in April: “First, we want to build the team. Then the technology. We’re rethinking how live auctions work on a platform – how to recreate that moment online. We’re also working on new ways to sell art. It’s still early days, but things will become clearer soon. The investor comes from the tech sector, so that plays a big role.”“

Daniel Cassady of Artnews detects slight signs of recovery at Sotheby’s: “Sotheby’s has returned to profit after several loss-making years, though the underlying financial picture remains complicated. The auction house posted a $53 million pre-tax profit in 2025, according to financial documents reviewed by the Financial Times, a turnaround from a $190 million loss the year prior. Sales rose nearly 20 per cent to $7.1 billion, lifting revenue from its core auction business by 26 per cent to about $1 billion. Full-year figures released by Sotheby’s show a broader improvement across the business. The company reported total revenue of $1.4 billion in 2025, up 21 per cent year-on-year, alongside an adjusted EBITDA of $363 million, one of the highest levels in its history.”

Elisa Carollo reports for the Observer on a highly successful design auction in New York: “Heralded as the most valuable single-owner design sale in Sotheby’s history, the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg lived up to expectations. The 22 April Collection of Jean & Terry de Gunzburg – Design Masters sale at the auction house’s Breuer headquarters closed white glove with a total of $96 million across 107 lots against an initial estimate of $28.5–42. 5 million to become the most valuable design collection ever sold in the US.“

Private sales are becoming increasingly important for the major auction houses, reports George Nelson in Artnews.

Loïc Gouzer has found a new twist for his private auctions, as reported by Daniel Cassady in Artnews: “It’s untested, but for him that’s part of the appeal. On 23 April, his auction app Fair Warning will roll out a new format called ‘No Warning’.” [...] To start, a work will appear for sale (with a price). You can either hit “purchase now” or submit a single offer. Then you wait. There is no bidding war, no incremental raises, and definitely no call from a specialist nudging you higher. [...] That uncertainty is part of the pitch.“

The French auction house Millon is buying out its struggling rival Pierre Bergé, reports Artdaily.

Art dealers Lévy Gorvy Dayan are now also entering the field of exclusive private auctions, reports Daniel Cassady in Artnews: “Auction houses have relied on lower estimates to get works moving, and the results have been solid. Strong sell-through rates and a run of successful sales have drawn sellers back towards the auction circuit. Now, LGD Hammer wants to bring that pressure into a gallery setting. Instead of sending a work into a packed evening sale, the gallery will offer one painting at a set time to a smaller group of buyers.“

The most comprehensive analysis of New York’s auction week is provided by Zachary Small, Julia Halperin and Tim Schneider in the New York Times (possibly behind a paywall): “Months of speculation led up to this moment, a symbol of the industry’s attempt to regain its footing after four years of fluctuating sales. It worked. Apart from the seven-minute bidding war that drove the value of the Pollock painting to a record price of $181.2 million, many works of art at the auctions exceeded their high estimates, with some setting new auction records. Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips ultimately sold artworks with a total value of $2.5 billion, including buyer’s premiums, compared with $1.3 billion at the corresponding auctions last May.” Beyond the raw figures, the article also addresses the themes of guarantees, new collectors, new markets, old white men and the ultra-contemporary. Essentially, this is the one article you should read. For Monopol, I take stock of the evening auctions in New York.

Art is a poor investment vehicle. This should really be a truism, yet the misconception that this is not the case persists. Taking the example of the latest New York auction results – hailed by the auction houses themselves, art dealers and much of the press as a resurgence of the art market – Katya Kazakina demonstrates in detail for Artnet (possibly behind a paywall) that even a risk-averse investment in a passive index fund yields a higher return than art.

In the Handelsblatt of 12 June, Johannes Wendland interprets the auction results from Grisebach in Berlin as a sign of an upturn: “Berlin is not New York or London – yet the general upward trend on the global auction market has also reached this country, albeit in a somewhat more modest form. The summer auctions at Grisebach have confirmed the resurgent appetite for buying. This applies above all to masterpieces, i.e. lots that represent exceptional quality, a unique history or provenance. Managing Director Daniel von Schacky was pleased to report a turnover of 19 million euros. That is a full 60 per cent above the lower estimate and thus ‘well above our expectations’, as he puts it. And what was particularly striking: ‘Exceptional works sell exceptionally well.’“ As is so often the case, the devil is in the detail and not in the latest press release. Last year’s spring auctions, in fact, brought in 19.5 million euros. And when the top lot brings in a good quarter of the total turnover rather than ten per cent, one would also think that expectations were exceeded. Christiane Fricke reports on a successful auction in the Handelsblatt of 12 June: “In the late afternoon of 10 June, it became clear at Van Ham in Cologne just how right the Frankfurt banker Jochen Neynaber (1939–2025) was with his statement: ‘Small art is not small. It is great.’ Of the 31 works—all of them small-format—that Markus Eisenbeis auctioned live from the Neynaber collection, not a single lot went unsold. The white gloves presented afterwards and an outstanding result of more than 1.7 million euros were the reward. The lower end of the estimated price range had been 624,000 euros.”