The art market faced significant headwinds in 2024 amid persistent global economic challenges. The year's top ten auction sales reveal total revenues of US$511.6 million, marking a 24% decline from 2023 (US$675.4 million). The entry threshold for the top ten decreased by about US$11 million to US$32.2 million.
Belgian surrealist René Magritte emerged as a dominant force this year, with two works securing positions in the top ten. His masterpiece L’empire des lumières (Empire of Light), celebrated for its dramatic contrast between day and night, achieved US$121 million, setting a new auction record for the artist and standing as the year's only nine-figure sale.
Notably, Hong Kong's prominence in the global art market strengthened, hosting two of the top ten sales. The city's position was further solidified by major investments from leading auction houses, with Christie's and Bonhams opening new headquarters and Sotheby's launching a flagship gallery.
The year also witnessed major auction houses continue their strategy of bringing premium Western artworks to Hong Kong. Christie's Hong Kong achieved HK$250.6 million (US$32.5 million) for a Van Gogh landscape, while Sotheby's secured HK$252 million (US$32.2 million) for Mark Rothko's Untitled (Yellow and Blue), both earning places among the year's top sales.
René Magritte's L’empire des lumières was the most expensive painting auctioned in 2024
Key highlights of the top ten sales include:
- Christie's dominated with six entries, followed by Sotheby's with three, and Phillips with one
- New York maintained its market leadership with seven sales, while Hong Kong hosted two and London one
- Multiple artists featured twice in the rankings, including René Magritte, Vincent Van Gogh, and Claude Monet
1st | René Magritte (1898-1967) | L’empire des lumières, Oil on canvas (Auction record for the artist and for a Surrealist work of art)
Painted in 1954
146 x 114 cm
Estimate on request (expected to fetch in the region of US$95 million)
Sold: US$121,160,000
Auction House: Christie's New York
Sale: MICA: THE COLLECTION OF MICA ERTEGUN
Date: 19 November 2024
René Magritte's Empire of Light (1954) was offered as part of a single-owner collection auction dedicated to American interior designer Mica Ertegun at Christie's New York. Expected to fetch US$95 million, it eventually sold for US$121.1 million at Christie's, making it the most expensive work by the artist and any Surrealist work of art.
With that sale, the Belgian Surrealist master has become the newest member of the US$100 million club, an elite group of fewer than 20 artists whose works have commanded nine-figure sums, including Leonardo da Vinci and Andy Warhol.
Famed interior designer Mica Ertegun was celebrated for her good taste
In Empire of Light, the Surrealist artist focuses on the juxtaposition of a nocturnal landscape bathed in deep shadows with the blue expanse of a day-lit sky above. After selling the first painting to Nelson A. Rockefeller in New York in 1949, Magritte would go on to create a total of seventeen versions in oil on this theme, each subtly different from the next. The present one, in particular, marks the first time Magritte introduced a body of water into the scene.
Interestingly, this Empire of Light was created under a rather unusual circumstance. On 19 June 1954, the Venice Biennale opened to the public with the theme of "Surrealist taste", in celebration of what was then the 30th anniversary of Surrealism.
One of the masterworks on the show was the enormous Empire of Light, which attracted a flurry of interest. Magritte soon found himself in trouble, though, as he promised the work to three different buyers. In the end, another collector altogether acquired the canvas: Peggy Guggenheim, who bought it directly for 1,000,000 lire.
As a result, Magritte arranged to create three additional versions of the canvas to appease the other disappointed parties. The present one was made for the Belgian collector Willy van Hove and later went to the Mica Collection in 1968.
2nd | Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) | Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half, Oil on canvas (Auction record for the artist)
Painted in 1964
165.1 x 308.6 cm
Estimate on request (expected to fetch in excess of US$50 million)
Sold: US$68,260,000
Auction House: Christie's New York
Sale: 20th Century Evening Sale
Date: 19 November 2024
Another star of Christie's New York autumn sales, Ed Rucha's Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half (1964) sold for US$68.3 million in November, setting an auction record for the artist and becoming the second most valuable painting auctioned this year.
Representing the peak of Ruscha's masterpieces of the early 1960s, his gas station paintings are emblematic of the American West and the post-war art historical canon. Ruscha first encountered the Standard Oil gas stations during a road trip from his native Oklahoma to Los Angeles along Route 66 in 1962. Captivated by the boldness of their design against the vastness of the American landscape, he began including them in what would become many of his most famous paintings, immortalizing them through seriality.
This work debuted the year it was created in a 1964 exhibition in Los Angeles' famed Ferus Gallery, where it was purchased by couple Donald and Lynn Factor. It has since remained privately held within esteemed collections, including that of Sid R. Bass, the heir to an oil fortune famous for his major investment in Disney.
3rd | Claude Monet (1840-1926) | Nymphéas, Oil on canvas
Executed circa 1914-17
175 x 135.4 cm
Estimate upon request (expected to fetch in the region of US$60 million)
Sold: US$65,500,000
Auction House: Sotheby's New York
Sale: A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller Evening Auction
Date: 18 November 2024
The gem of eyelash mogul Sydell Miller's estate, Claude Monet's Nymphéas (1914-17) fetched US$65.5 million after a 17-minute bidding war at Sotheby's New York in November.
The painting is a prime example of Monet's water lily paintings, the late series he ceaselessly worked on at his beloved Giverny Garden between 1897 and his death in 1926. In more than 250 canvases, the Impressionist master captured the changing images of the water lilies and their reflections on the pond at all hours of morning, day, and evening. While the early paintings in the series encompassed a larger scenery of the garden, he gradually moved his focus closer to the water's surface, experimenting with the transitory effects of sunlight on it.
Executed in a kaleidoscopic palette of jewel-toned purples and luscious blues, Nymphéas exemplifies Monet's deft ability to translate fleeting atmosphere and the protean effects of light into paint. In its close cropping and all-over painterly effect, the work also marks a radical, early foray into abstraction, one which would prove influential for the future Abstract Expressionists.
4th | Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) | Untitled (ELMAR), Acrylic, oilstick, spray paint and Xerox collage on canvas
Executed in 1982
172.7 x 236.5 cm
Estimate: US$40,000,000 - 60,000,000
Sold: US$46,479,000
Auction House: Phillips New York
Sale: Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale
Date: 14 May 2024
Sold for US$46.5 million at Phillips, Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled (ELMAR) achieved the highest price during New York sales in May and took fourth place on the list.
Fresh to the market, the painting was originally held in the collection of the late Italian anthropologist Francesco Pellizzi, who acquired it in the early 1980s directly from Annina Nosei, his gallerist friend and Basquiat's first dealer.
At nearly 240 cm wide, the monumental work from 1982 is a cornerstone of Basquiat's golden year, during which he transitioned from street art to gallery success. The year marked the 21-year-old artist's definitive entrance into the international art world: he had his first US solo exhibition at Annina Nosei Gallery in New York, and became the youngest artist ever to be invited to participate in the landmark Documenta VII exhibition in Germany.
In 1998, it was featured at Gagosian Los Angeles as part of a memorial exhibition commemorating the 10th anniversary of the artist's death and was on the cover of the accompanying catalog. More recently, it was prominently exhibited in the artist’s historical 2018 retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
5th | René Magritte (1898-1967) | L'ami intime (The Intimate Friend), Oil on canvas
Painted in January - February 1958
72.6 x 64.9 cm
Estimate: £30,000,000 - 50,000,000
Sold: £33,660,000 (US$43.2 million)
Auction House: Christie's London
Sale: The Art of The Surreal Evening Sale
Date: 7 March 2024
Headlining Christie's London evening sales in March, Magritte's L'ami intime (The Intimate Friend) fetched £33.6 million (US$43.2 million), becoming the fifth most expensive painting auctioned this year.
L'ami intime is one of Magritte's finest paintings of a bowler-hatted man, an iconic image of 20th-century Surrealist art. Gazing out the window onto a mountainous landscape and a cloud-filled sky, the enigmatic faceless "everyman" appears oblivious to the strange sight of a baguette and wine glass floating in mid-air behind him.
The painting came from the collection of Gilbert Kaplan – the late founder of Institutional Investor and international conductor – and his wife Lena. Shortly after it was auctioned for £90,000 in 1980 in London, the couple purchased the work, keeping it largely private. The last time it was publicly displayed was at the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels in 1998.
6th | Andy Warhol (1928-1987) | Flowers, Acrylic, fluorescent paint and silkscreen ink on linen
Executed in 1964
208.3 x 208.3 cm
Estimate: US$20,000,000 - 30,000,000
Sold: US$35,485,000
Auction House: Christie's New York
Sale: 20th Century Evening Sale
Date: 16 May 2024
Making US$35.5 million in its auction debut, Andy Warhol's vibrant Flowers from 1964 was the most expensive work in Christie's 20th-century evening sale in New York in Spring.
Warhol was at the height of his creative powers when he conceived the Flowers series in the summer of 1964. Produced for his first exhibition at New York's Leo Castelli Gallery that autumn, the series came from a suggestion by Henry Geldzahler, then curator of contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
During a visit to the legendary Factory, Geldzahler, frustrated with the artist's morbid obsession with death and having spent months working on his Death and Disaster series, decided to nudge Warhol to try his hand at something less dire. He pointed to a photograph of flowers in Modern Photography magazine, an idea which Warhol immediately seized upon as his subject.
Cropping the image into a square format, Warhol sent for silkscreens in various sizes, among which the present one is the only 82-inch Flowers where all four flowers are painted in Day Glo paint. It was also one of just three works in the 82-inch square scale being included in that landmark Leo Castelli exhibition.
7th | Claude Monet (1840-1926) | Meules à Giverny, Oil on canvas
Executed in 1893
65.5 x 100.2 cm
Estimate upon request (expected to fetch in the region of US$30,000,000)
Sold: US$34,804,500
Auction House: Sotheby's New York
Sale: Modern Evening Auction
Date: 15 May 2024
Also during New York May sales, Monet's Meules à Giverny (1893), one of the artist's final "Haystacks" paintings, made its auction debut at Sotheby's, achieving US$34.8 million and becoming the seventh most expensive painting sold in 2024.
It is one of a handful of works by Monet featuring the motif of a large haystack in the French countryside that have come to auction in recent years. Five years ago, Meules (1890) sold for US$110 million at Sotheby's New York, setting an auction high for the artist and any Impressionist work.
That work, painted between 1890 and 1891, belonged to what is commonly viewed as the artist's first series, some 25 canvases in which the haystacks are depicted in various light and weather effects. Meules à Giverny, along with two other works, was completed amid Monet's Cathedral paintings in 1893, which marked the last moment he fully engaged with this subject.
The first owner of the painting was American landscape painter Dwight Blaney, who acquired it in 1895 while on a trip to Paris. Bringing the painting back to the United States, he lent it almost immediately to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and later to the Copley Society. Ever since then, it has resided exclusively in American collections.
8th | Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) | Coin de jardin avec papillons, Oil on canvas
Painted in May-July 1887
50.4 x 61.4 cm
Estimate: US$28,000,000 - 35,000,000
Sold: US$33,185,000
Auction House: Christie's New York
Sale: 20th Century Evening Sale
Date: 16 May 2024
Another work from Christie's 20th-century evening sale in May, Vincent van Gogh's Coin de jardin avec papillons sold for US$33.2 million, taking an eighth place on the list.
Painted during Van Gogh's transformative two-year stay in Paris, the work captures the artist's radical shift from dark realism to vibrant impressionism. In the summer of 1887, he set out for a painting "campaign" at Asnières, a picturesque suburb situated a few miles northwest of Paris on the Seine. Easily accessible by train, it was at that time a hub for boating enthusiasts and a scenic retreat from the city's heat and noise for daytrippers and weekenders.
From early May until late July, Van Gogh headed there almost daily and developed around forty paintings around the town, including the present one. It was originally held in the collections of Theo van Gogh and his descendants, and has also belonged to Joseph Reinach, the 19th-century French journalist and politician best known as the public champion of artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus.
9th | Mark Rothko (1903-1970) | Untitled (Yellow and Blue), Oil on canvas (Auction record for the artist in Asia)
Executed in 1954
242.9 x 186.7 cm
Estimate: HK$225,000,000 - 275,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$225,000,000
Sold: HK$252,500,000 (US$32.5 million)
Auction House: Sotheby's Hong Kong
Sale: Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction
Date: 11 November 2024
The star of Sotheby's inaugural modern and contemporary auction at its new Hong Kong Maison, Mark Rothko's Untitled (Yellow and Blue) (1954) sold for HK$252.5 million (US$32.5 million) in November.
The sale marked an extremely rare instance of the American post-war painter's work being auctioned in Aisa. The last and only other time a work by Rothko came to auction in Asia was in 2022, when Untitled (Red and Orange on Salmon) (1969), a small acrylic on paper laid on canvas work valued at HK$42.5 to 55 million, was withdrawn ahead of an evening sale at Sotheby's Hong Kong.
After the artist's suicide, the large-scale yellow and blue painting was immediately acquired by the great 20th-century American philanthropists Paul and Bunny Mellon. Since then, it has borne witness to the changing fortunes of the world's rich and powerful: from François Pinault, the French luxury mogul who owns Kering, Château Latour, and Christie's; to Jho Low, the Malaysian fugitive financier allegedly involved in the 1MDB corruption scandal; and Farkhad Akhmedov, the Russian oligarch recently renowned for the world's largest divorce settlement with his ex-wife.
10th | Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) | Les canots amarrés, Oil on canvas (Auction record for the artist in Asia)
Painted in Paris in the summer of 1887
52 x 65 cm
Estimate: HK$230,000,000 - 280,000,000
Sold: HK$250,625,000 (US$32.2 million)
Auction House: Christie's Hong Kong
Sale: 20th/21st Century Evening Sale
Date: 26 September 2024
Another work Van Gogh painted at Asnières in 1887, Les canots amarrés was one of the most important Van Gogh paintings offered in Asia and the centerpiece of Christie's high-profile inaugural evening sale at its new Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. Estimated at HK$230 - 280 million, it eventually fetched HK$250.6 million (US$32.2 million) with fees in September, earning a tenth place on the list.
Boasting a royal provenance, the painting was offered by the Italian royal family of Bourbon-Two Sicilies whose members include Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro, Princess Camilla, and their daughters Carolina and Chiara. Although no longer holding power, the family maintains high social status and are darlings of the Western entertainment and fashion circles, having garnered fame through appearances on the BBC program "Inside Monaco: Playground of the Rich".
The painting belongs to a set of three separate triptychs that dominated Van Gogh’s output during his time in Asnières, each of which shares the same horizontal format and similar canvas size. The rest of the trio are Ponts sur la Seine à Asnières (1887) and Restaurant de la Sirène, Asnières (1887), today at the Emil Bührle Collection, Zurich and The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford respectively.