Strong Results For Christie's in 2021 Sales

Guillaume Cerutti, Christie’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are pleased with our 2021 achievements. Beyond our auction and private sales results -which are exceptional, Christie’s has also made a breakthrough in new sales formats and categories, NFTS in particular. They have allowed us to showcase works by new emerging and under-represented artists, and to reach out to a new audience of younger clients. We have also made great progress in other priorities, with important investments in Asia and with our commitments to becoming carbon net zero by 2030, and to building and sustaining a more equitable and diverse profile for our company. Growth, innovation and responsibility remain at the forefront of our objectives for 2022.”

         CHRISTIE’S KEY TAKE-AWAYS FROM 2021

Total projected sales in 2021: USD$ 7.1B (5.2B)

Strong Rebound +54% vs 2020; +22% vs 2019.

Highest total in last 5 years, back to higher levels than pre-COVID

Breakdown: Total auction (Live and Online): USD $5.4B / 3.9B, Private sales: USD $1.7B /1.3B

Continuing the pattern of previous years, clients in each region contributed roughly one third of Christie’s total auction sales by value: Americas 35%, EMEA 34% and Asia 31%.

Historic sell-through rate and highest prices at auction

Historic sell-through rate at auction : 87%, demonstrates depth of demand and performance

Christie’s holds the two highest prices for works sold at auction in 2021:
Picasso’s Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Therese) for USD $103.4M (the only work at auction above $100M in 2021) and Basquiat’s In This Case USD $93.1M.

Several other results of interest at auction in 2021:

Highest value work bought by a museum at auction - Caillebotte’s Jeune homme sa fenêtre
(USD $53 M – New York / November)

Highest value work sold at auction for a charitable cause - Banksy’s Game Changer
(16.76 M – London / June)

Highest value work sold at auction for a living female artist - Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin
(HKD $62.54 M/ USD$8.18 M – Hong Kong / December)

Christie’s is the leading auction house for NFTs

First major auction house to sell an NFT; establishing a landmark price: Beeple’s Everydays sold for USD$69 M – March 2021

More than 100 NFTs sold in 2021, for nearly $150 M

75% of buyers in this category are new to Christie’s, with an average age of 42

Online auction sales continue to grow

up 43% to USD$ 445 M

average lot value USD$ 23,400 (vs USD$ 6,100 in 2016)

Nearly half of all of Christie’s auctions now take place online
 

Record year for Private Sales

Total projected private sales $1.7 B (1.2 B) : +12%vs 2020, +108% vs 2019

4 works selling privately above USD 50m

Major contribution from Asia

Asian buyers contributed a total of USD$1.68B, +32% up on 2019

Asian spend across all auction rooms in the world represented 39% of sales in H1 and 31% for full year

Auction sales in Hong Kong reached USD$ 1.03 B in 2021, with record season in the Fall 2021

New Headquarters in Asia – Christie’s new Hong Kong HQ opens in The Henderson by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2024 and Christie’s Shanghai relocates to BUND ONE in Spring 2022 with inaugural sale in March 2022

Strong influx of new clients and millennials

35% of all buyers in 2021 are new to Christie’s, with almost 2/3 entering via online sales

32% of new buyers are millennials

Luxury is the largest recruiter of new clients at 32%
 

Paving the way to the future

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives: Christie’s has done much to diversify its sales this year notably through its 20/21 sales, with 66 new world auction records for women artists and 47 new auction records for BIPOC artists in this category; plus partnerships with organizations that present the work of diverse artists

Sustainability: Christie’s is first international auction house committed to becoming   by 2030 and first to achieve Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) accreditation for reducing carbon emissions by 50%

Key Leadership Appointments: President Christie’s Americas (Bonnie Brennan), Chairman for Christie’s China (Rebecca Yang)