In anticipation of the London sales this week and next, it’s worth looking back at the previous five years results to get a sense of where the art market stands, especially in London where so much growth had taken place. The chart below shows the retreat in Impressionist and Modern sales back to 2005 levels. It also shows a fairly consistent pattern of better total sales in Summer than Winter.

Summer also does better when it comes to the average price of works in the evening sales in London: