Decorative-Art Market Finds Its Price Floor as Trophy Sales Take Over
The decorative-art market ended 2025 with a familiar contradiction: fewer works changed hands, but the objects that did sell commanded more. Sales in the category, which includes design objects, furniture, jewelry, watches, and related material, reached about $3.9 billion, according to the latest market data. That marked a 7.1 percent increase from 2024, though it remained far below the category’s most recent peak of $5.7 billion in 2023.
The clearest signal came from auction pricing. The number of lots sold fell 11.9 percent between 2024 and 2025, while the average price rose 21.6 percent to $15,247. In other words, the market appears to be concentrating around fewer, more desirable works — a pattern that has become increasingly visible across the upper end of the decorative-art field.
A single sale illustrated that shift with unusual force. A 1976 Hippopotamus bar by François-Xavier Lalanne sold for $31.4 million at Sotheby’s during a design sale in December, after a 26-minute bidding war. The result set an auction record for the French artist and underscored the appetite for rare, highly recognizable pieces with strong design pedigree.
The auction houses themselves also posted gains. Sotheby’s led the category with $1.1 billion in sales, up 26.3 percent. Christie’s followed with $1 billion, a 5 percent increase, while Phillips reported just over $369.7 million, up 25.8 percent from 2024.
Geographically, Europe remained the largest market for decorative art, generating $1.4 billion in sales even as that figure fell 4.9 percent year over year. North America moved into second place, displacing Asia, with $1.2 billion in sales — a 31.4 percent jump from 2024. Asia recorded $1.1 billion.
The numbers suggest a market that is no longer expanding evenly, but instead rewarding scarcity, name recognition, and objects with the kind of provenance that can turn a sale into a spectacle. For collectors, that may be the most telling development of all.
