Old Masters Sales in London Reach $102 Million as New Collectors Enter the Field
Christie’s and Sotheby’s closed their Old Masters evening sales in London with about $102 million in combined results, a figure that marked nearly a 10 percent increase from the same sales last year. The total arrives just after a $560 million week for modern and contemporary auctions, but the two sectors are moving on different tracks: one is recovering, while the other is being propelled by discovery and a fresh cohort of buyers.
That split is becoming increasingly visible in the market. Modern and contemporary art has benefited from renewed momentum after a softer stretch, while Old Masters has drawn attention from collectors who are still learning the category and, in some cases, building collections from the ground up. The appeal is not simply historical prestige. For many buyers, the field offers the possibility of finding works with strong scholarship, clear provenance, and room for reassessment.
Among the works highlighted in the sales were two 17th-century still lifes by Dutch painter Jan van Huysum (1682–1749), a reminder that the Old Masters market still turns on connoisseurship as much as capital. In this segment, attribution, condition, and rarity can matter as much as headline totals, especially when newer collectors are entering the room.
The broader art market context is equally telling. While modern and contemporary auctions have been buoyed by signs of recovery, Old Masters appears to be benefiting from a different kind of confidence: the belief that the category still contains discoveries worth pursuing. That dynamic may help explain why London’s latest sales posted gains even as the market’s strongest energy is coming from elsewhere.
The same news cycle also underscored how closely the art market remains tied to questions of authenticity and ownership. An eBay seller was caught offering fake works attributed to Chicago Imagists, and the Manhattan district attorney’s office seized dozens more ancient artifacts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Together, the stories point to a market in which value, verification, and vigilance remain inseparable.
