Led by first-time-buyers from The Middle East (up 23% year-over-year), the London-based auctioneer Christie's saw full-year sales hit record highs in 2014. As The FT reports, [3] Christie's saw total sales rise 16%, topping $5bn for the first time driven by a 30% in 'new buyers' as central bank largesse leaked out of the 1% pockets. The Americas remained the primary driver of growth, accounting for 38% of sales and the largest proportion of new buyers. Thank you Mr. Yellen...
Christie’s full-year sales, propelled by a surge in first-time art buyers and big ticket lots, hit record levels in 2014 despite an increasingly cut-throat auction house market and the abrupt exit of its chief executive last month.
The London-based auctioneer announced on Tuesday that total sales rose 16 per cent last year to reach £5.1bn in the 12 months ended 31 December, up from £4.5bn in 2013. Auction sales hit £4.2bn, £1.7bn of which stemmed from Christie’s postwar and contemporary division, whose $852.9m November auction brought in the highest total for an art auction.
Although the rate of growth had eased slightly when compared with the previous year, Christie’s said it had seen strong headway made across every sector. Some 30 per cent of all sales were made by new buyers to the house, reinforcing the success of ongoing investments in its online infrastructure and new-markets expansion. The Americas remained the primary driver of growth, accounting for 38 per cent of sales and the largest proportion of new buyers.
Christie’s — which is privately owned after being bought for $1.2bn in 1998 by Artemis, a holding group belonging to French luxury billionaire François Pinault — releases sales figures twice a year without disclosing its profits.
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“The fact that this was a record sales year for us speaks volumes about Christie’s and the way the company has performed in the last year,” said Patricia Barbizet, chairman and chief executive.
Or - more likely - speaks volumes about the colossal amount of printed money sloshing around among the world's 1%.
As Michael Moses, a former New York University professor whose firm Beautiful Asset Advisors tracks art returns, says he doesn’t see “a dramatic change in the broader art market” ahead. “The art market really tanks only when there’s a substantial drop in global wealth.”
And if there's one thing central planners know, it's how to create 'wealth'... for a few.
