This commentary on the London Impressionist & Modern sales from June 2017 is available to AMMpro subscribers. Monthly subscriptions come with a free first month grace period. Subscribers are welcome to sign up for the service and cancel at any time before they are billed.
The London sales of Impressionist and Modern art nearly doubled from the previous year's sales and made a record total of £313m (for Christie's and Sotheby's combined) or £10m more than in the previous high-water mark of the post-financial-crisis market.
That sales date is somewhat telling. 2010 saw the first solid indications that art—especially time-proven Impressionist and Modern art—was being used as a significant store of value for some of the world's wealthiest persons.
Although the sales totals were very strong, the performance has shifted toward the top of the market echoing the totals from 2010 but not the recent years of 2012-15 when the day sales posted stronger numbers than this year or the year before.
Sotheby's had its second strongest June Impressionist and Modern Evening sale of the post-financial-crisis era; however, the day sale was lower than any time in the last four years. Christie's day sales were the lowest of the last eight years save 2016.
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