Athena Art Finance has released its report on the London auction cycle that accompanied the Frieze art fair. These sales are heavily weighted toward lower-priced contemporary art. With that in mind, pay particular attention to the left-hand bar graphs that show the hammer performance of day sale lots at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips. Nearly half of the day sale lots at Sotheby’s sold for above the high estimate; Christie’s followed closely with a very strong 39%. 

Combining the three houses, 36% of the day sale lots sold over the estimate range. Sotheby’s also reduced the number of day sale lots showing that a well-managed market produces confidence building results.

In the Evening sales, Christie’s was helped greatly by the Waddington estate’s success.

You can see more of Athena’s breakdown by downloading the report here: auctioninsights_oct2016_london-2