Christie’s and Sotheby’s Post Huge First Halves, Led by a $181 Million Pollock and a $50 Million T. Rex

The auction houses are no longer asking whether the market is back. On Tuesday (July 14), Christie’s reported $4.5 billion in first-half revenue and Sotheby’s a record $4.4 billion, helped by the most expensive Pollock ever sold at auction and a T. rex.

Christie’s figure includes $3.5 billion in auction sales, up 71 percent year over year, and more than $1 billion in private sales, its strongest first six months since 2021, ARTnews reports. “We had our best first half in five years at Christie’s, growing in all departments and regions, at every price point,” CEO Bonnie Brennan said in a statement.

The Trophies

The spring was built on a few huge sales. Christie’s sold the S.I. Newhouse collection for $630.8 million in New York in May, led by Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948 at $181.2 million and Constantin Brâncuși’s Danaïde at $107.6 million. Mark Rothko’s No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) made $98.4 million. All three set artist records, according to ARTnews.

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Sotheby’s auction sales rose 59 percent to $3.4 billion, with a record $826 million in private sales and a 90 percent sell-through rate, ARTnews reports. The Art Newspaper adds that the Robert Mnuchin collection made $173 million and the Lewis collection totaled $406.2 million in London in June, the highest-value sale of Impressionist, Modern and contemporary art ever staged in Europe.

Then there was Gus. The 67-million-year-old skeleton sold at Sotheby’s for $50.1 million after 19 bids, a record for a dinosaur and well above the $44.6 million paid for the Stegosaurus Apex in 2024, ARTnews says. Not everyone is cheering: paleontologist Richard Butler told The Guardian that selling fossils “like rare artworks at vast prices by auction houses is very concerning.”

What the Numbers Say

Both houses stressed that the demand is broad. At Christie’s, sell-through reached 91 percent, and works sold for an average of 124 percent of their low estimates. Works estimated at $20,000 to $100,000 reached 148 percent, which ARTnews calls perhaps the most encouraging figure because it sits far from the nine-figure trophies. Luxury, from watches to memorabilia, is now second at both houses.

Brennan told The Art Newspaper that buyers are choosing carefully. “The audience is disciplined, don’t underestimate how savvy they are about pricing,” she said, and “where estimates got pushed, bidding was thinner.”

Why It Matters

June’s Art Basel already suggested the top end was healthy. These results say the auction side was, too. ARTnews notes that the houses are now competing for ever-larger estates and single-owner collections, with Sotheby’s pointing to upcoming “Magnum Opus” sales. That race carried into the fall, as in our stories on the Clive Davis collection and a $100 million Koons consignment.

Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.