Which Auction House Led the Pack in 2025?

Adrien Meyer sells the top lot of The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G Ross Weis, Mark Rothko's No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) for $62.1 million at Christie's. Courtesy of Christie's Images Ltd.

Margaret Carrigan . April 21, 2026

Christie’s was top of the heap again, generating $3.5 billion in fine-art auction sales, 10.1 percent more than in 2024, although still 9.8 percent down from 2023. In a year-end earnings report, the house noted that the second half of 2025 saw a 26 percent jump in overall sales compared with the same period in 2024. The most expensive artwork sold by Christie’s was Mark Rothko’s No. 31 (Yellow Stripe), 1958, from the collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis, which fetched $62.1 million in November.

In hot pursuit, rival Sotheby’s brought in $3.3 billion, an impressive 31 percent increase from 2024. The house secured some of the highest-profile single-owner collections of the year, including the Lauder and Karpidas troves, as well as Selma Ertegun’s Surrealist holdings. These included Frida Kahlo’s 1940 El sueño (La cama), which sold for $54.7 million in November, setting a record for a work by a woman artist at auction.

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