In July, we took a core sample of the market with our Hot 50 list of artists whose work dominated the top of the market in the first six months of the year. That list provided solid evidence of a turn toward historical work—one that seemed to accelerate in the second half of 2025. Now we have the data to prove that a healthy rotation is taking place. While the artists with the highest auction volume are still the most familiar names, the Hot 50 contains a number of meaningful differences from last season, let alone a decade or two ago. Notably, the list of maximum prices by artist includes many more eight-figure sales and a substantially different cast of characters than those who appeared in the first half of 2025. The list of artists with the most lots sold also looks quite different.

Even though the auction market included only the second-ever public sale of a work above $200 million, the money spent at auction is being spread among a greater number of artists. This trend warrants deeper analysis, but you can come to your own conclusions by downloading the report here.

It will come as no surprise that Gustav Klimt topped the list of artists by auction volume in the second half of 2025. The Lauder collection, which included three Klimts, provided the kind of high-value, high-quality supply that ignites an artist’s market. But even with more than $392 million in auction sales for the second half of 2025, Klimt accounted for less than 17 percent of the total sales volume of the top 50 artists. There was also a very steep drop-off to Pablo Picasso, No. 2 on the list, whose sales totaled more than $138 million—less than 6 percent of market share. And while they did not make the list of the top 10 artists by auction volume separately, Les Lalanne (Claude and François-Xavier) would have been the fourth-highest-value artist at auction if treated as a single artist, with more than $86 million in combined sales.

Frida Kahlo was the only female artist to crack the $60 million barrier. In fact, there were only seven women among the 50 top names: Kahlo, Joan Mitchell, Lalanne, Agnes Martin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Barbara Hepworth, and Yayoi Kusama.

After Kahlo, at $62 million, only Marc Chagall and Alexander Calder sold between $50 million and $60 million worth of art in the second half of 2025. Nine more artists were able to rack up between $40 million and $50 million in auction sales: François-Xavier Lalanne, Amedeo Modigliani, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol, Fernand Léger, Joan Mitchell, Francis Bacon, Edvard Munch, and Max Ernst.

The top 10 artists of the second half of 2025 by maximum price for a single work were:

It took eight years after the auction record set by Leonardo’s Salvatore Mundi, at $450 million, for another work of art to cross the $200 million threshold. But it finally happened this past November with Klimt’s portrait of Elisabeth Lederer. The art market operates under power laws, and those are magnified when we look at the maximum price any work by an artist achieves at auction. Vincent van Gogh was the artist with the second-highest maximum price achieved, at $62 million, or roughly a quarter of the price paid for the top Klimt. The top-price difference between Klimt and Picasso—No. 1 and No. 2 in overall auction volume, respectively—was roughly 5x.

Only Frida Kahlo achieved a price for a single work in the $50 million–$60 million range, while Jean-Michel Basquiat, Picasso, Monet, and David Hockney achieved prices in the $40 million–$50 million band. Another four artists made sales in the $30 million–$40 million bracket: Munch, Matisse, François-Xavier Lalanne, and Modigliani. Six artists set their high-water mark between $20 million and $30 million: Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian, Yves Klein, Ni Zan, Alexander Calder, and Max Ernst.

Of note on this list are two Indian artists: F.N. Souza and Basawan. Also included are Ni Zan, a classical Chinese painter from the 14th century, as well as Rembrandt and Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Fu Baoshi, a Chinese classical painter who lived during the 20th century, also made the list, as did Kim Whanki, the Korean modern master.

Unsurprisingly, Picasso sold the highest number of lots—266—at auction during the second half of 2025. It’s also unsurprising that the artist had twice as many lots sold as the second-place artist. What is surprising, however, is that No. 2 was Claude Lalanne, with 114 lots. Almost $37 million of her work was sold this year, with a top price of nearly $5 million.

Roy Lichtenstein was third in line with 101 lots, for $72 million total and a top price of only $4 million. An important Lichtenstein would cost 10 times that or more; these sales were the result of the artist’s estate selling work that was highly prized for its provenance and quality, even if they were not major works. The appetite for this sort of high-quality but relatively low-priced work has been boosted by the upcoming retrospective at the Whitney, no doubt. But the success of these sales suggests an appeal far beyond a major museum show. (Matisse also appears high on this list; his son’s estate sold a number of works on paper last year.)

The high-volume list also includes a number of artists who are considered designers as well. Notably, the design market has never lagged since the pandemic. The result has been greater sales for artists who produce design material, such as Line Vautrin, Les Lalanne, Mattia Bonetti, Gio Ponti, Jules Leleu, and Jean Prouvé. Ceramicists, like Lucie Rie and Jean Dunand, also benefited from the demand for design and made the list too.

The list of top artists by hammer ratio also contains a number of surprises. By its very nature, this particular list can be volatile. ARTDAI tries to control for that by requiring a minimum of five lots sold in calculating the hammer ratio, which is the aggregate hammer price for the artist divided by the aggregate estimate. M.C. Escher topped the list with a hammer ratio of more than 11 across the sale of 31 works for $4.5 million total. Anomalies like actor Gene Hackman—whose artwork sold for more than nine times the estimate even though the total sale was only slightly more than $100,000 across 11 works—also appear on the list. Finally, who could begrudge Bob Ross, as seven of his paintings made famous by his television career sold for an aggregate price more than five times the estimate?

Other outperformers of note: John Koch, the American realist painter, had sales almost five times the aggregate estimate. F.N. Souza had substantial sales volume, at nearly $16 million, that came in at more than four times the estimates. Salvo continues to sell well above estimates—almost 3x—but on a volume of only 10 works for a $1 million total. Other notable artists on the list include Vietnamese painter Bui Xuan Phai, Sikh painter Bishan Singh, Turkish painter Fahrelnissa Zeid, and Indian painter S.H. Raza.

That’s enough data for one day. Don’t forget to download your own PDF so you can read through it in detail yourself.

Looking forward to speaking to you on Friday,
M