Christie’s tops £5 billion in art sales

Global sales of art topped £5.1 billion at Christie’s during 2017, a 26% increase spearheaded by the sale of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which sold for a record-breaking £342.2 million in November last year in New York.

Christie’s said increased supply at masterpiece level met continued demand as global auction sales increased 38% to £4.6 billion.

Overall art sales in the Americas increased to £2.5 billion, sales in Asia totalled £582.9 million, while in Europe and the Middle East sales reached £1.5 billion.

Alongside the da Vinci, other key artworks sold included:

• Vincent van Gogh, Laboureur dans un champ, an oil on canvas painted in 1889 – sold for £62,118,029
• Fernand Léger , Contraste de formes, oil on burlap, painted in 1913 – £53,523,682
• Andy Warhol, Sixty Last Suppers, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas – £48,109,802
• Constantin Brancusi, La muse endormie, patinated bronze with gold leaf, originally carved in 1909-1910 (this bronze version cast by 1913) – £44,436,483
• Cy Twombly, Leda and the Swan, oil, lead pencil and wax crayon on canvas – £40,934,598