Venice, Le Grand Canal by Monet sold for £23.7 million.
Worldwide auction sales at Sotheby’s reached $6.1 billion dollars in 2014, the highest total ever. One third of buyers were new to Sotheby’s and accounted for almost one fifth of sales according to results released today. Greater Chinese clients purchased more than $1 billion across sales rooms. There were record totals in 14 categories including Contemporary art ($1.7 billion, up 20.3%); Impressionist and Modern art ($1.4 billion, up 26.7%); jewellery ($602.5 million, up13.8%) and watches ($107.2 million, up 10.9%).
Dramatic growth in online bidding and buying is reported. Last year there were nearly 25% more online bidders than in 2013 and ten lots sold for $500,000 to online bidders. There was an increase of nearly 20% in new bidders online.
In 2015 so far there has been a 20% increase year on year of lots sold for over $10 million, a 12% increase in global participation, a 19% increase in Chinese buyers and one million hits on Sotheby’s digital productions in February. The top art lot of the February London auctions was Claude Monet’s Venice, Le Grand Canal which sold for £23.7 million.