With sales of $14.9 billion last year, the art market saw a 14 percent drop compared to 2022, although online transactions saw a 285 percent jump.
Unlike Sotheby's, which has put together the more than 700 works it offers for sale, piece by piece, Christie's most prominent works come from two private collections.
One of those collections belonged to late television pioneer Norman Lear and his wife Lyn, with David Hockney's "A Lawn Being Sprinkled" worth an estimated between $25 million and $35 million, among the stand-out pieces.
"There are probably fewer collections this season than there have been historically for idiosyncratic reasons, but we have great collections (which) will be on the market this season again," said Christie's vice president Max Carter, adding that the March sales in London were among the highest ever.
At Sotheby's, the jewel in the sale crown is a Francis Bacon portrait with an estimate of $30 million to $50 million.
It is the first large-scale painting Bacon did of his then-partner George Dyer in 1966 and the first of ten works he did of the latter before he died on the eve of his death.
Source: AFP
