Christie's saw new record high sales, helped by selling over 50 artworks at more than $10 million a piece, totaling in over $4.5 billion sales for the first half of the year. WSJ's art reporter Kelly Crow joins Lunch Break with Tanya Rivero. Photo: Getty
The art market is still crackling. Christie's International PLC said Tuesday it sold $4.5 billion of fine and decorative art during the first half of the year, up 22% from the same period a year ago—and representing a record high for the privately held company based in London. Christie's total included $3.6 billion in auction sales and $828 million in privately brokered art sales. Its private sales were up 16% compared with the first half of 2013.
Rival Sotheby's said it auctioned $3.3 billion in art during the first half, up 29.4% from the year before. The New York-based auctioneer will release consolidated totals next month.
In a realm that thrives on hawking masterpieces, Christie's offered up 52 artworks that sold for more than $10 million apiece—a bumper crop that included an $84.2 million Barnett Newman striped abstract, "Black Fire I," and an $80.8 million Francis Bacon triple portrait of the artist's bartender friend, "Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards."
Jeff Koons's work, 'Jim Beam - J.B. Turner Train,' 1986, sold for $33.8 million. CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2014
Christie's Chief Executive Steven Murphy said the company owed much of the spring season's success to an influx of new, curious buyers: 24% of Christie's bidders during the first half were first-timers, he said. Many of these newcomers were wealthy, younger collectors from Asia looking to expand their collections of everything from wine to watches to Andy Warhol. As a result, the auction house plans to launch additional sales at its new salesroom in Shanghai near the Bund after it opens in October. Christie's will also offer another sale in its latest salesroom in Mumbai in 2016.
In terms of categories, Christie's sold $1.3 billion in postwar and contemporary art, up 30% from the first half of 2013, and $939 million in Impressionist and modern art, up 49%. Sales of jewelry, watches and wine also totaled $455.5 million, up 20% from the first six months of last year.
In a twist, Christie's sales of Asian art dropped 15% to $369.6 million for the period, a sign that collectors of Asian art might be growing wary of rocketing price levels for scroll paintings and jade figurines. Dealers said buyers might also be saving money to splurge on other, Western collecting categories like contemporary art.
Collectors from the U.S. outspent all rivals this spring, taking home $1.8 billion worth of art from Christie's, up 31% from the first half of 2013. The company said it plans to capitalize on the U.S. momentum by reconfiguring some space in Rockefeller Plaza in New York to add additional private viewing rooms for discreet shoppers. European collectors bought $1.5 billion in art, up 22% from a year ago. But Christie's said it is still betting big on Asia's purchasing power, noting that buyers from China accounted for 24% of the house's total sales for the first half, a 46% uptick in spending from last spring.
When it comes to contemporary art, the playing field is evening out in compelling ways, Mr. Murphy added. During the first half, buyers from the art market's biggest regions—the U.S., Europe and Asia—each took home roughly a third of the contemporary works on offer at Christie's major sales. That broad sweep of interest and competition is the main driver pushing up record prices for newer art, he added.
"We have to send out the invitations and hold the dinner," he said, "but the good thing is that people everywhere are hungry for art."
The art market tends to quiet down in late July and August but will get tested anew at sales throughout the fall in London, Hong Kong and New York.
Write to Kelly Crow at kelly.crow@wsj.com