London’s Old Masters market found an unexpected source of momentum this week: new collectors.
Christie’s and Sotheby’s generated £76.7 million ($101.6 million) across their Classics evening sales, a 9.4 percent increase on the same auctions last year. The result followed a $560 million week for modern and contemporary auctions in the U.K. capital, but the forces behind the two segments appear to be diverging. In the contemporary market, recovery at the top end remains the main story. In Old Masters, discovery is doing more of the work.
Sotheby’s said roughly 20 percent of buyers at its Old Masters evening sale were new to the auction house, and nearly a quarter of the lots sold were bought by collectors new to the field. Christie’s did not release a comparable figure, but a spokesperson said there were “new bidders and buyers across the sales on Tuesday.” The pattern suggests that some of the wealth once expected to chase only contemporary art is now moving toward historical works with strong visual appeal and clear provenance.
That shift has been visible in the bidding. Christie’s Tuesday evening sale brought in £38.9 million ($51.4 million) and set six records. Among them were back-to-back records for Dutch Golden Age painter Jan van Huysum (1682–1749). His undated still life of peaches, grapes, and other fruit sold for £6.52 million ($8.65 million), against a £3 million–£4 million estimate. A companion floral bouquet from 1734 reached £5.54 million ($7.35 million), well above its £2.5 million–£3.5 million estimate.
Advisor Evan Beard, who was active in the room, described the appeal of such works as intensely specific. He called the Van Huysums “magical” and said they outshine some examples in major museum collections. For collectors with a gap to fill, he added, these are the kinds of works that can override broader market logic.
At Sotheby’s, the strongest surprise came from Auguste-Jean Marie Carbonneaux’s 1817 bronze “The Laocoön and his Sons,” which sold for £13.6 million ($18.1 million). That result made it the most expensive Neoclassical sculpture ever sold at auction, far above its £2 million low estimate. Other lots also outperformed expectations, including a 17th-century Flemish school set of copper panels depicting the seven days of creation, which sold for £768,000 ($1 million), and a 17th-century Dutch school memento mori painting, “Wo Skulls with a Quill and Paper on a Marble Ledge,” which brought £431,800 ($577,400).
The week’s sales suggest that Old Masters remain highly sensitive to supply, but also newly responsive to taste. In London, the market rewarded not just rarity, but works that could still stop a collector in front of the screen or the saleroom wall.
