Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Sotheby’s sells record $7.3bn of art so far in 2021

Sotheby’s sells record $7.3bn of art so far in 2021

Auction house credits younger, tech-savvy collectors for highest annual sales in its 277-year history
Sotheby’s has sold a record $7.3bn (£5.5bn) worth of art and other collectibles so far this year – the most in its 277-year history.

The auction house said on Wednesday that an “influx of younger, tech-savvy collectors” buying luxury items such as handbags, jewellery, wine and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) during the pandemic had helped lift sales to the record high.

Sotheby’s, which was founded in London in 1744 and now operates from 80 offices around the world with its headquarters in New York, said the 2021 total would rise still higher as it has 20 more sales to come before the year end.

So far this year, Sotheby’s has sold 57 pieces for more than $15m each, with a Botticelli painting of a young man holding a roundel selling for $92.2m being the top selling item. Sales are already 71% higher than they had been in 2020, when demand had waned in the early stages of the pandemic.

Records were also set for the most expensive trainers (or sneakers) ever auctioned, with the Nike Air Yeezys that Kanye West wore to the 2008 Grammy’s selling for $1.8m in April, and for a 1933 “double eagle” gold coin, which raised $19m to become the most expensive coin ever sold at auction.

The most money changed hands in modern and contemporary art, which totalled a record $4.3bn across auction and private sales. The departments that sell luxury watches, wine and spirits, design and books & manuscripts also all achieved record annual sales.

The company also set a record for the most valuable single-owner auction, with $676m paid for the Macklowe Collection amassed over more than half a century by the real estate magnate Harry Macklowe and his ex-wife Linda Macklowe. The couple were ordered to sell the collection, which included masterpieces by Alberto Giacometti, Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly, by a judge overseeing their divorce after they failed to agree on its value.

Sotheby’s also held its first sale of NFTs, selling $16.8m worth in three days including the “source code for the world wide web” which sold for $5.3m.

It said the NFT sale fuelled a “dramatic expansion” of its audience, with 78% of the NFT bidders being new to Sotheby’s and more than half under 40. Overall, 47% of bidders were new customers in 2021, and the number of bidders under the age of 40 increased by 187%.

“An influx of younger, tech-savvy collectors also saw a landmark crossover into purchases of physical works such as Alberto Giacometti’s Le Nez bought by Justin Sun, founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron, for $78.4m last month in New York,” the auction house said.

The announcement of Sotheby’s annual sales came as speculation mounts that the auction house’s billionaire French owner may be planning to float the company on the stock market.

Patrick Drahi, who bought Sotheby’s in a $3.7bn deal in 2019, is said to be exploring a prospect of flotation of Sotheby’s as soon as next year according to Bloomberg.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×