Sotheby’s celebrates 50 years in Asia with $1.1b annual sales

Premier auction house sees millennials driving the art market’s growth and energy, particularly in the fields of contemporary art and luxury.

Art collectors from mainland China are driving a resurgence in traditional Chinese art, according to Sotheby’s Asia Chairman Nicolas Chow. “We just had one of our most successful sales series ever,” said Chow, backing up his observation when interviewed by Singapore Business Review.

He was referring to the successful spring sales of April 2023 that marked Sotheby’s 50th anniversary in Asia.

Sharing his insights post-event, Chow revealed a resurgence of the Chinese art market. With the reopening of borders and a rise in the number of Chinese collectors, sales in these traditional categories surged, resulting in a nine-year high result of over $200m.

“The demand for classical categories, like Chinese works of art, Chinese modern paintings, and Chinese classical paintings was the most noteworthy thing,” he said.

These are the art mediums making waves amongst Asian collectors that have made an impact on Sotheby’s worldwide turnover. “Asian clients took us a whopping 36% of the turnover,” Chow said.

He said this very well reflects a significant shift in the balance of the performance of different departments over the past few years. In 2021 and 2022, Sotheby’s saw record sales of over $1.1b each year. Luxury items such as jewellery, watches, wine, fashion, and ultra-contemporary art also had a substantial demand from Asian buyers.

In line with this, Chow mentioned their “Buy Now” channel, a new model developed by Sotheby’s to provide year-round accessibility to art and luxury items, catering to the desire for constant engagement and convenience. “We’re launching this in China next week in Shanghai, the Buy Now channel,” he said.

“Auctions are still where the highest prices are made in pretty much every category,” added Chow. He said auctions remain the primary platform for achieving high prices in the art market, although online sales have gained prominence during the pandemic.

An interesting development for Sotheby’s is its adaptation to the digital age by conducting a significant portion of its sales online, catering to the preferences of modern buyers, especially millennials.
 
“We’ve shifted a lot of our sales online, really responding to how people live today,” said Chow.
 
He pointed out that millennials spend about 60% of their time on their devices, leading the auction house to shift a large portion of its auctions online. This shift has been met with substantial engagement, with 91% of bids made online in 2022.
 
Meanwhile, Sotheby’s is also looking to capitalize on the popularity of digital collectibles, or non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Despite a market correction in 2022, Chow believes that NFTs are set for a strong comeback. During the recent Art Basel fair, the highest transaction was an NFT, sold for between $6-8m.
 
Referring to data from Art Basel and UBS, Chow shared that digital art accounted for 11% of high net worth (HNW) collectors’ total expenditure on art in 2022. With cryptocurrencies on the rise again, he expects this trend to continue in 2023, predicting further growth in the digital collectables market.
 
Perhaps, this is proof of the enthusiasm and curiosity of Asian buyers across various art categories, said Chow. He said it indicates the Asian market’s broad engagement and willingness to explore different types of art.

”Asian buyers learn extremely fast and they're extremely curious with pretty much every category,” he said.
 
As it moves into the next half-century in Asia, Sotheby’s seems ready to adapt to the changing art landscape, focusing on traditional art categories while keeping an eye on emerging trends such as digital art and online sales channels.