Why Have China’s Art Auction Sales Dropped by 49 Percent?

September 17, 20242 Mins Read

This article is part of the Artnet Intelligence Report Mid-Year Review 2024. Our analysis of the first half of the year’s market trends provides a data-driven overview of the current state of the art world, highlighting auction results and trends, and spotlights the artists and artworks shaping the dialogue.

According to Artnet’s Mid-Year Intelligence Report, all major regional art markets contracted, but the U.S. remains the largest, with the U.K. second. China suffered the largest decline in sales so far this year.

a line chart detailing auction sales by country over 6 years

Fine-art auction sales in the U.S. generated $2.2 billion in the first half of 2024, down 24 percent from the equivalent period in 2023. That is the third-lowest half-year total of the past decade, which includes the pandemic-affected year of 2020.

The U.K. came in second, with $827 million in sales, a 26 percent drop from the same period last year. In a business landscape made increasingly challenging by Brexit, a historically weak pound, and high inflation, auction houses have downsized some of their London sales.

China’s sales were 49 percent lower than for the same period last year, bringing in just $825 million. The first half of 2023 saw a record number of auctions after the country’s pandemic-related restrictions were lifted. Mainland China has faced an economic downturn over the past two years amid a real estate meltdown. Notably, several major Chinese auction houses have decided not to post their results this year, including Poly International and Rombon Auction Beijing; these two houses by themselves generated $671 million in sales in 2023.

Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Fräulein Lieser (1917) sold for a record $32 million in April 2024. Photo: © Auktionshaus im Kinsky GmbH, Vienna.

The top 10 countries by auction sales value were the U.S., the U.K., China, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, and Canada. Of these, Austria saw an increase in sales, up $35 million from the same period last year. That’s roughly the amount that the mysterious unfinished portrait by Gustave Klimt brought at Vienna’s im Kinsky auction house in April, which at $32 million is the most expensive work to be sold at an Austrian auction house. Canada also saw a $5 million (15 percent) increase in total sales.