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A Picasso Surprise & The Basquiat Boom

The June sales in London are in the midst of being downgraded. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn a thing or two from the tepid results, which show the market is still bottoming. Plus, a preview of the Old Master sales.

picasso sotheby's
Picasso didn’t have a great performance in these sales, but he held top spot for market share with $21 million in sales and 13 percent of the sales total. Photo: Fatih Aktas/Anadolu/Getty Images
Marion Maneker
June 30, 2024

First, the numbers: The London sales saw £128,174,025, or nearly $163 million, change hands for 436 lots. Originally, 557 lots were offered, but consignors lost their nerve on 16 lots with a combined presale value of £8.4 million ($10.68 million), or about 7 percent of the presale total. The sell-through rate without the withdrawn lots was 81 percent. If we add the withdrawn lots back in, it falls to 78 percent—not a huge difference but slightly below the industry average.