San Francisco Frontiers - New York art auctions roar back with blockbuster sales

According to an AFP database, 12 works have already sold for more than $30 million this May in the city, including two that exceeded $100 million.

That's a reversal following a slump in sales leading up to 2025, which experts attributed to global economic uncertainty and a lack of high-value works on the market.

"We're really in a trend reversal," Thierry Ehrmann, head of art market information firm Artprice, told AFP.

A Jackson Pollock painting on Monday became the fourth most expensive work ever sold at auction when it was bought at Christie's in New York.

With its black drips of paint accented by touches of red on a huge canvas spanning over three meters (nine feet), Pollock's "Number 7A, 1948" sold for $181.2 million.

The previous record for American painter Pollock was $61.2 million, set in 2021.

Also on Monday, a bronze head cast by the French-Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi reached $107.6 million -- compared with $71.2 million for his previous record in 2018.

- Market shift -

The first signs of a spending surge date back to late 2025.

Sixteen works sold for more than $30 million that year, all in New York, with two records at Sotheby's.

Bought for $236.4 million, "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt became the second most expensive work ever sold at auction.

And "The Dream (The Bed)," a self‑portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was acquired for $54.7 million -- making it the priciest painting by a woman.

Market analysts note that many of these works come from prestigious private collections released onto the market in single blocks, which increases their appeal to major collectors.

Ehrmann, of Artprice, said there has also been a shift in the demographic of buyers.

"It's no longer a market for the ultra‑rich," he said, with younger people aged around 35 pursuing auctions, often drawn from the tech world and the global south.

And more buyers are women, Ehrmann said, which can benefit female artists.

The auction record for the American painter Alice Neel was broken on Monday at Christie's, with $5.7 million for "Mother and Child (Nancy and Olivia)."

The most expensive painting ever sold at auction remains the "Salvator Mundi," (Savior of the World), a Renaissance work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was bought for $450 million in 2017.

Q.Nelson--SFF