the sale of several masterpiece collections helped to push global art and luxury sales at christie’s up 17 this year to us84 billion—a record for the londonbased auction house that it said on monday is the “highest annual total in art market history” for christie’s it was a year of superlatives that included the us162 billion sale of the paul g allen collection and the us195 million sale of andy warhol’s shot sage blue marilyn in the midst of difficult economic and geopolitical conditions according to christie’s it sold eight of the top 10 most valuable works of any auction house this year the results were “not a given” guillame cerutti christie’s ceo said in a news conference monday “we are in a challenging macroeconomic environment this figure proved the resilience of the art market but also the remarkable performance of our teams” the underlying factors that led to the auction house’s strength this year—including strong demand an influx of new collectors and the fact art is often viewed as a safe harbor investment—will continue to support the market cerrutti said but as sales in hong kong and new york indicated this past fall buyers are becoming more selective “it’s a more balanced situation than 18 months ago when we were bouncing back from covid and the market was extremely strong” cerutti says “it’s a different market today” cerutti made a point of noting christie’s record total for the year only included sales of art and luxury goods—not real estate or luxury cars last week sotheby’s reported global sales of us8 billion which included the results of its recently acquired rm sotheby’s classic car unit and sotheby’s concierge auctions which deals in luxury real estate sotheby’s total was also a record for the company of christie’s us84 billion in global sales us72 billion was from luxury and art sold at auction including us363 million online and us12 billion was from private sales sotheby’s sold us65 billion in art and luxury including cars real estate and us580 million online with private sales expected to total us11 billion by year end phillips also released its annual results for the year so far at the end of last week reporting us13 billion in annual sales—its highest annual total ever the results included more than us1 billion from live and online auctions and a 20 rise in private sales to about us250 million all three auction houses the largest to sell art and luxury goods globally are privately held meaning they are not obligated to deliver financial results to investors christie’s is owned by françoishenri pinault’s groupe artémis a luxury holding company and sotheby’s was taken private in 2019 after it was bought by bidfair usa an investment firm owned by entrepreneur and collector patrick drahi phillips which deals primarily in modern and contemporary art is owned by the mercury group a russian luxury goods company christie’s sale of the late microsoft cofounder paul g allen ‘s collection was notable for the overall results and the fact five works sold for more than us100 million including the us1492 million sale of georges seurat’s les poseuses ensemble petit version 1888 but the auction house also sold the collection of thomas and doris ammann for a total us3592 million which included warhol’s marilyn and the collection of philanthropist and investor anne h bass which sold for a total us3631 million proceeds from the allen and ammann collections went to charitable organizations as did proceeds from the ann and gordon getty collection of about 1500 lots which totaled us150 million “the success of 2022 is explainable by the success of collections at christie’s and of masterpieces” cerrutti said overall christie’s reported 85 of lots brought to the auction block sold for a total of 46322 in all according to cerrutti a percentage above 82 is considered a strong performance most buying at christie’s took place in the americas which at us455 billion represented 40 of all sales up from 35 last year another us18 billion or 34 of sales were in europe the middle east and africa while us833 million or 26 of sales were in asia pacific the total percentage of sales in asia slipped in 2022 from a 31 share in 2021 but christie’s said asian buyers were active in the auction house’s global salerooms particularly in the allen sale and in the recent sale of works by claude and francoisxavier lalanne from the collection of their daughter marie lalanne that sale totaling us77 million was christie’s highest for a design collection with a result 319 above a low estimate range the auction house detailed the buying trends of millennial collectors who have become a critical force at all the auction houses according to christie’s 34 of its new buyers are millennials and globally this age group those born between 1981 and 1996 according to the pew research center represents 21 of all buyers millennials are driving online sales the push into digital businesses and sales of 21st century art asian contemporary art and the luxury categories of handbags and watches isabella lauria christie’s head of its 21st century evening sales in new york noted that millennial buyers are drawn to artists such as matthew wong adrian ghenie anna weyant christina quarles harold ancart and others whose works have sold for for prices far above initial estimates at auction “what’s most interesting about this list specifically is that most of these artists are also millennials themselves” lauria says “it shows us millennial collectors are not only interested in top quality art from christie’s but art of their own generation” phillips also highlighted in its news release that millennials represent nearly a third of its buyers and that 40 of its buyers in asia were from this age group selling highpriced art and luxury goods as the world wrestles with the effects of war in ukraine the covid response in asia rampant inflation and the prospect of recession among other challenges means the art market is sometimes “dancing on a volcano” cerutti said at the end of the news conference “we don’t want you to believe we are at the moment taking advantage of this great result to forget the rest of the world”