$7.3 billion, the highest annual total achieved in “277 years of existence”
Sotheby's auction house achieved the highest sales revenue in its history during 2021
Sotheby's is headquartered in New York.
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Sotheby's auction house announced that in 2021 it achieved the highest sales proceeds in its history, which is $7.3 billion, as a result of two main factors during the pandemic, namely the emergence of new interest thanks to online broadcasting, and a remarkable demand for buyers from Asia.
The amount of $ 7.3 billion is the "highest total" achieved by "Sotheby's" in "277 years of existence," according to the New York-based London house, which was bought in 2019 by the French-Israeli telecommunications magnate Patrick Drahi.
Of that total, auctions generated $6 billion (plus 1.3 billion for private sales), an increase of 71 percent from 2020. This number was a 26 percent increase even from 2019, which preceded the health crisis.
Experts from auction houses and the art market noted that the pandemic did not eliminate the appetite of collectors and did not limit their capabilities, but the year 2020 witnessed a decrease in the supply that was returned and put forward in 2021.
One of the most prominent auctions this year was the one that Sotheby's held last November on the McCullough family's art collection.
The proceeds of the sale of these works reached 676 million dollars in one evening, as a result of the divorce of New York real estate magnate Harry McCullough and his wife Linda Borg, who was the emeritus director of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
The acquisition of the founder of the cryptocurrency platform "True", the Chinese-American businessman, Justin San (31 years), the bronze "nose" sculpture of Alberto Jacometti for $ 78.3 million, was an example of the emergence of a new category of collectors.
Sotheby's noted that 46% of acquisitions worth more than $5 million in 2021 came from Asian collectors.
Asians also bought the most expensive piece in McCullough's collection, a painting "Number 7" by Mark Rothko, which collected $ 82.4 million.
Buyers from the same continent also acquired the painting "Girl with a Balloon", or "The Girl with the Balloon", by British street artist, Banksy, which was given a new title, "Love is in the Bin", for 18.6 million. British pounds ($25.5 million).
Given the impossibility of holding in-person activities in 2020 due to the pandemic, auction houses were forced to innovate and turn more to digital means, allowing access to an unprecedented number of participants during the past 12 months, Sotheby’s explained, noting that 39% of buyers 2021 "Renewed".
In this context, digital artifacts using “non-fungible tokens” technology (NFT) entered the art market in 2021, for example, the founding program for the Internet in its current form was sold for $ 5.4 million.
But total NFT sales at Sotheby's are still relatively low (100 million in 2021).
Last April, the Nike Air Yeezy 1 shoe, worn by singer Kanye West, broke the absolute record for selling shoes at auction, with a price of $ 1.8 million during an auction organized by Sotheby's.
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