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Private Parts

After perusing endless 2024 sales data, I’m optimistic about the art market, especially because so much of the growth is at the lower end; in collectibles; and in the uppermost tier, where the impact of the private market cannot be captured by data alone.

basquiat sothebys art auction
The main reason we are in a phase of the market that favors private sales is that the overall price level for the highest-value art has not changed much in recent years. Photo: Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images
Marion Maneker
January 12, 2025

The auction numbers for 2024—which were down again, as you know—can be interpreted in several ways, most of them forlorn. I know we all draw our own conclusions from the same set of facts, especially the shift of high-value sales to the private market. I offered some insights of my own—based on proprietary auction data from analytics firm ARTDAI—for Inner Circle members on Wednesday. (Sign up here, if you haven’t already.) Today, I’m offering some related, higher-level observations, that don’t require wading through the data at a granular level.