“Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets” is on view at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia through February 22. Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation
Henri Rousseau is primarily known for his vivid, lush paintings of forests, which are often described as naïve fantasies of exotic places he imagined during his years as a customs officer in Paris—hence his nickname, Le Douanier Rousseau. He never left his home country, despite rumors that he participated in the Mexican War as part of the French Army. In Paris Salons, his playful, often childlike style and dreamlike compositions—with their extreme simplification of forms, flat perspective and unnatural proportions—were frequently ridiculed.
But as Rousseau’s reputation grew in the final years of his life, demand for his work increased, and young artists and writers began acquiring his more affordable paintings. Painters like Picasso were among his most avid collectors, suggesting his visual language—and the acute social analysis it carried—was ahead of its time. Still, full market and institutional recognition only truly arrived over a century after his death. In the wake of his poetic Les Flamants (1910) fetching $43,535,000 at Christie’s in May 2023, a new survey, “Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets” at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, finally reveals him as he truly was: an astute, self-taught artist who consciously constructed his own myth, shrewdly navigating the new circuits of the modern art world.
With 18 works from the Barnes’s own holdings—the largest Rousseau collection in any museum, first acquired by Albert C. Barnes in 1920—and major loans from the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée de l’Orangerie and private collections, the exhibition (the most comprehensive to date) spans the full breadth of Rousseau’s practice. It reveals an artist at once autobiographical and allegorical, oscillating between the intimate and the epic, between fairy-tale reverie and sharp social commentary.
As the title suggests, the show offers a comprehensive yet non-chronological overview of his oeuvre, inviting visitors to explore the key strategies and motifs behind the myth and enigma he so deliberately crafted—tapping into some of the most compelling layers of his personality as well as the depth of his seemingly naïve imagination and symbolism.
What emerges from the very first rooms is Rousseau’s lesser-known professional ambition. While he struggled throughout his life with financial insecurity and an uneasy fit within the formal structures of the art world, he understood its dynamics and played his hand with remarkable calculation. Despite being self-taught and maintaining a highly original visual language, Rousseau was not a naïve outsider but a sharp and deliberate operator, attuned to the cultural and political climate of his time.
Here, his allegorical and patriotic paintings share the same visual language favored by Salon conventions, emulating the elaborate personifications that celebrate France as one of the world’s two great republics, alongside the United States. These themes were designed to appeal to the cultural preferences of public institutions. Yet flashes of political critique break through, as in War, where Rousseau does more than engage with art-historical precedent—he questions the authority of official narratives, using ambiguity to lay bare the trauma of conflict. By pushing the real and the fantastical to their extremes, Rousseau casts France as “a force for Peace.”
The playfulness and surface naïveté of his style are deployed to chilling effect in War (1894), an apocalyptic allegory that scandalized the Salon des Indépendants. A spectral female figure—part goddess, part demon—soars over a scorched battlefield littered with corpses, leaving, in the artist’s words, “despair, tears, and ruin in her wake.” The painting openly references earlier depictions of combat, from Paolo Uccello’s Renaissance battle scenes to the Romantic catastrophes of Goya and Delacroix, yet it strips them of grandeur. There is no heroism here—only psychic devastation, rendered with a childlike clarity that intensifies the horror. For viewers in 1894, the painting evoked recent national trauma, including the Franco-Prussian War and the violence of the Paris Commune, both of which Rousseau had witnessed firsthand. His symbolic vision already transforms collective memory into myth, reframing political catastrophe as a timeless allegory of destruction.
Rousseau found a warmer reception when he presented traditional portraits of Parisian bourgeois figures that the public could recognize and relate to. The Wedding (1905), a strange and mesmerizing group portrait, was described by art critic Louis Vauxcelles—who coined the term “Fauvism”—as “amazing” at its Salon des Indépendants debut. Arrayed in stiff procession before a dreamlike backdrop, the figures appear both real and spectral, their expressions suspended somewhere between pride and unease. In their well-done new condition, they attempt to document and display. Though Rousseau never delivered the painting to the commissioners—who likely rejected it—it almost certainly portrays specific individuals, perhaps acquaintances of the artist, yet he renders them with the frozen composure of marionettes. The bourgeois performance of respectability is exposed as a kind of theater in which ritual and artifice blur.
A similarly innocent image, Child with a Doll (c. 1905–06), distills that same tension into the single figure of a young girl, stiffly posed against a patterned backdrop, holding her toy with a solemnity that feels at once tender and uncanny. The work epitomizes Rousseau’s ability to slip from naïve to grotesque in a single gesture: his figures appear simple, even clumsy, yet every detail—from the lace on the dress to the floral border—reveals obsessive precision and near-virtuosic control. This friction between innocence and artifice is what gives his portraits their hypnotic, psychological charge, building the mystery that renders them timeless.
Seen through this curatorial lens, Rousseau no longer appears as a simple visionary but rather as a lucid participant in the modern spectacle—someone who, knowingly or not, understood the performative mechanics of the art world. He constructed an identity that blurred the lines between art and persona, truth and legend: the humble customs clerk who, through painting, conjured entire worlds of innocence and terror, parody and prophecy.
Henri Rousseau, Child with a Doll, c. 1892. Oil on canvas. Photo Franck Raux | Courtesy of the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris
Even in the seemingly delightful Child with a Doll, Rousseau reveals a deliberate engagement with the decorativism and Japonisme that captivated fin-de-siècle Paris. The flattened perspective, ornamental patterning and rhythmic repetition of forms echo Japanese prints and Art Nouveau design. But where contemporaries like Bonnard or Vuillard used these devices to conjure domestic intimacy, Rousseau transforms them into instruments of estrangement. The child, framed as though inside a stage set or tapestry, becomes less a portrait than an icon—an image of modernity’s uneasy balance between sentiment and spectacle. Rousseau appeals to his contemporaries’ eyes (hoping to sell), yet keeps a critical gaze trained on the social performance unfolding around him.
This duality becomes even more apparent in Père Junier’s Cart (1908), which expands the frame to capture the modest, eccentric theater of community life. Based on a photograph from an outing to Clamart Woods, the painting turns a bourgeois family picnic into a tableau of social masquerade. The white mare, Rosa—deliberately outsized—pulls a cart that appears both literal and symbolic, its passengers proud, awkward and faintly absurd. When the American painter Max Weber teased Rousseau about the scale of the dog, the artist replied simply, “It must be that way.” That quiet insistence captures Rousseau’s poetics: the logic of dreams overtaking the logic of sight, the illogic of humans staged in a scene that subtly reorders power among its figures. In some works, Rousseau even paints himself as well-dressed and successful, fully participating in the social theater where each figure performs conventional hierarchies of age and gender.
At this point in the show, it becomes clear that Rousseau’s blend of the playful and grotesque often edges into comedy, even as it reflects a sharp understanding of human psychology. His humor is dry but tender, faintly Baudelairean—a clear-eyed, parodic vision of modern life as a “grumpy parade” of aspiration and self-importance, not unlike the poet’s portraits of Parisian ennui. That is Rousseau’s quiet genius: beneath the surface charm lies a subtle dismantling of respectability—an art of gentle rebellion against perbenismo, the polished façade of a society convinced of its own moral and rational superiority, and increasingly blind to the primal imagination it sought to suppress.
A room filled with small domestic landscapes—a steady stream of “little pictures” of gardens, riverbanks and suburban parks destined for the walls of the Parisian petite bourgeoisie—reveals how well Rousseau understood the new rituals of middle-class life and how to sell into them. As his first biographer, Wilhelm Uhde, recalled, Rousseau regularly sold these modest works to neighbors to support himself between exhibitions. At the Salon des Indépendants, he would discreetly hang a few beside his more ambitious canvases, balancing survival with self-belief.
If Rousseau’s portraits staged bourgeois life as a masquerade, and his conveniently decorative landscapes catered to the tastes of a rising class of collectors, his forest scenes turned nature itself into a theater of mythic allegory—a visual language of moral instruction akin to fairy tales. Seeing them together makes it immediately clear that, as in Aesop’s fables, the animals stand in for human impulses—predation, desire, fear, vanity—rendered with the same mix of naïveté and cunning that animates his portraits. Rousseau’s gift, and perhaps his secret, was to recover in art the wonder of childhood while using that apparent simplicity to smuggle in allegory, encoding timeless observations about recurring patterns of human behavior and psychology within the fantastical.
In Fight Between a Tiger and a Buffalo (1908), based on a 1906 illustration from a popular art journal, Rousseau transforms borrowed imagery into something unmistakably his own. The dense explosion of foliage—bananas, blossoms and tangled leaves rendered in countless shades of green—creates a claustrophobic Eden where beauty and brutality coexist, much like the Parisian âge d’or he inhabited. The composition feels almost cinematic: every leaf glows like a stage light, every animal gesture choreographed for maximum tension and visual pleasure. Though the press dismissed the work for its violence, one critic, admiring “the wild animal’s eyes, green and ferocious,” already sensed that Rousseau’s symbolic depth and surface innocence concealed a masterful control of pictorial drama.
Henri Rousseau, Fight between a Tiger and a Buffalo, 1908. Oil on canvas. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Gift of the Hanna Fund
As a caption confirms, these forest paintings also reveal Rousseau’s sharp awareness of the market. Only after Gauguin’s posthumous rise around 1903—when exotic subjects became newly desirable—did Rousseau, ever strategic, begin a cycle of jungle scenes (between 1904 and 1910). Yet unlike Gauguin’s escapist Tahitian reveries, Rousseau’s works are mythic allegories confronting the modern world. In them, war, desire and colonial anxiety converge. The struggles between predator and prey represent not only primal instinct but also the violence of empire. Having lived through France’s colonial expansion and worked part-time as a newspaper vendor, Rousseau understood how mass media sensationalized the “savage” and the “exotic.” His Tropical Landscape and Jungle with Setting Sun intentionally play with—and subtly critique—these racial stereotypes. The anonymous Indigenous figures facing the overwhelming power of nature reflect the fears and fantasies of an audience comforted by its distance from the “untamed.”
In these works, Rousseau’s allegorical language surfaces a latent awareness of the very idea of “civilization and progress” that surrounded him—and of the deeper truths preserved in those faraway, imagined worlds. His jungle scenes are never caricatures of “the other.” Instead, the epic grandeur he grants these symbolic battles offers dignity to the untamed, suggesting admiration for a world unspoiled by modern life. In his vision, the forest becomes a metaphor for the unconscious—fertile, terrifying, alive.
Through these painted forests, Rousseau affirms his belief that art can still access a mythic dimension—a space where innocence and insight coexist within a fantastical symbolic lexicon. It’s a quiet defiance of a rational, industrial world increasingly shaped by productivity, functionality and market logic.
Whether Rousseau encouraged the rumor of his supposed Mexican adventures hardly matters; he understood its narrative value in a cultural economy fueled by myth. In the industrializing, colonial France of the early 1900s, the figure of the “valiant soldier-painter” or “dreaming douanier” returning with visions of tropical lands aligned perfectly with the public’s appetite for exotic spectacle. Rousseau transformed that fantasy into a brand—and in doing so became both the subject and the author of his own legend. His supposed naïveté functioned as armor, masking deeper political and spiritual intuitions and, more pragmatically, shielding him from the system. When he was tried in 1908 for unwitting involvement in a bank fraud scheme, his defenders even cited one of his monkey paintings as evidence that he was too innocent to be duplicitous.
Few artists have blurred the boundary between art and persona with such poetic precision. For Rousseau, myth was not just a subject but a mode of existence: he painted, lived and performed with the same sincerity of invention. The Barnes exhibition ends on this note of deliberate mystery, bringing together for the first time three of his most elusive masterpieces—The Sleeping Gypsy (1897), Unpleasant Surprise (1899–1901) and The Snake Charmer (1907)—each suspended between fear and fantasy. In The Sleeping Gypsy, a woman lies in a moonlit desert as a lion hovers protectively—or perhaps predatively—above her. Ridiculed at its debut, the painting now reads as a vision of disarmed wonder, the unconscious laid bare under the gaze of the animal world.
In Unpleasant Surprise, a nude startled by a bear becomes a study in ambiguous violence—erotic, mythic, faintly colonial. Renoir admired its “tonal loveliness,” seemingly indifferent to its baffling subject. And in The Snake Charmer, commissioned by Berthe Delaunay and nearly rejected by the Salon d’Automne as a “tapestry project,” Rousseau conjures a hypnotic moonlit Eden, where the Eve-like figure seduces both serpent and viewer into a trance of light and shadow—calling us back to something far more primordial, to a realm of ritual and myth capable of restoring a more authentic connection with nature beyond the material ambitions of modern life.
Seen together, these paintings are less naïve fantasies than open invitations—to imagine, to dream, to reclaim the primordial act of myth-making that Rousseau practiced with unwavering conviction. Like the visual storytelling of a children’s book, they function as portals meant to spark imagination in its most direct, intuitive and unfiltered form, before the mediation of modern codes. His “painter’s secrets,” as the exhibition title suggests, are not techniques of deception but gestures toward a lost capacity for wonder—the ability to see the world as both real and enchanted, primal and poetic, earthly and transcendent. In an age just beginning to idolize progress, reason and order, Rousseau offered something quietly radical: the right to remain childlike, to believe in the marvelous and to access those deeper truths linking the human soul to nature and the timeless logic of myth.
Henri Rousseau, The Snake Charmer, 1907. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris
On November 20, Sotheby’s generated a combined total of $304.6 million between the Cindy and Jay Pritzker Collection, Exquisite Corps and Modern Evening sales. Julian Cassady Photography / Ali
Of the $1.6 billion of art expected to change hands during this year’s November sales, $1.1 billion was secured by Sotheby’s when the evening sales concluded on the 20th. When tallied with the Day sales the following afternoon, the auction house’s fall marquee week sales had generated a total of $1.173 billion—the second-highest total ever after the $1.33 billion achieved in November 2021 at the height of the contemporary and ultracontemporary markets.
Following the success of the Leonard A. Lauder sale, which delivered a $527.5 million Evening total and a clean 100 percent sold rate for the $3.8 million Day sale offering (est. $3.2 million), Sotheby’s completed a full white-glove, three-sale marathon. It opened with The Cindy and Jay Pritzker Collection Evening Auction, which totaled $109.5 million, followed by the $98.1 million Exquisite Corpus sale and a $97 million Modern Evening auction. Driving many of the lots was strong participation from Asia, which accounted for 30 percent of total bidding, a reminder that Asian collectors respond enthusiastically when true quality comes to market.
Most importantly, if 2021 belonged to the contemporary and ultracontemporary frenzy, these marquee sales showed a clear pivot. Buyers turned toward art-historical touchstones by the most established names in Modern art or toward figures long overlooked and now undergoing reassessment. Across the November sales, Sotheby’s sold $843 million of Modern works, the highest total ever for the category in a single season. Prestigious provenance and strong storytelling were key in this inaugural auction round at the Breuer building for Sotheby’s, with single-owner collections accounting for 72.5 percent of the week’s total ($828,244,220 of $1.173 billion). And in the contemporary segment, it was the artists with the strongest institutional foundations who rose to the top.
“After years of uneven seasons, this week’s results demonstrate that the often quoted cliche of the three D’s (death, debt and divorce) powering the art market has never been truer,” Mari-Claudia Jimenéz, partner and co-head of Withers Art & Advisory, confirmed. For the industry’s seasoned expert, the abundance of fresh-to-market, extraordinary-quality estate properties inspired buyers to return with gusto to chase the best-in-class works with impeccable histories.
Sotheby’s evening marathon on November 20 began with the collection of Chicago’s Cindy and Jay Pritzker, who are best known for founding the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1979. The sale immediately set the tone of the night, generating $109.5 million across just 13 works against a pre-sale estimate of $73.5 million to $88.5 million.
Leading the auction was Vincent van Gogh’s Romans Parisiens (Les Livres jaunes) (1887), a radiant still life from the artist’s Paris period in which a stack of yellow-bound books becomes a portrait of his voracious intellect and humanist curiosity. Boasting an extensive exhibition history, the canvas was pursued for at least seven minutes by five bidders and sold for a record-setting $62.7 million, well above its estimate of around $40 million and setting a new benchmark for any still life by the artist.
Deep bidding also accompanied the sale of Wassily Kandinsky’s musical watercolor “Ins violett” (Into Violet) from the height of his Bauhaus period, listed as No. 188 in his handlist. Sought by five bidders in a spirited exchange, it more than doubled its high estimate, fetching $2,368,000 (est. $700,000-$1,000,000).
Other Modern masterworks in the Pritzker collection prompted intense competition. Camille Pissarro’s Bords de l’Oise à Pontoise, dating to the beginning of the artist’s second sojourn in Pontoise in 1872, was pursued by four bidders and achieved $2.5 million against its $1.2-1.8 million estimate. Félix Vallotton’s poetic domestic scene, Femme couchée dormant (Le Sommeil), triggered an animated battle between six collectors on the phones and in the room, pushing it above its $1.8-2.5 million estimate to sell for $2.8 million. The canvas had been acquired by the Pritzkers from Wildenstein & Co., New York, in 1985 and remained with them ever since, as did most lots in the sale.
Lot 10, the Cubist Nature morte by Fernand Léger, also sparked back-and-forth bidding from five contenders, driving the work to $2,214,000, nearly double its $800,000-$1.2 million estimate. This was followed by a $9,200,000 result for Max Beckmann’s classics-inspired canvas, sought by five bidders, and Joan Miró’s uncanny sculptural reinterpretation La Mère Ubu, which achieved $5,052,000 after a battle between four bidders, landing near the midpoint of its $4-6 million estimate. The bronze had been acquired by the couple in 1980 from legendary dealer Pierre Matisse in New York.
Another highlight, Henri Matisse’s Léda et le cygne, sold for $10.4 million, meeting its high estimate with fees. One of the very few architectural pieces by the artist—the majority of which are in public spaces or museums—and the first of its kind to appear at auction, the unique work was commissioned in 1943 by Argentine diplomat Marcelo Fernández. Last exhibited publicly during the 1984-85 Matisse exhibition at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, it was acquired the following year by the Pritzkers from Feingarten Galleries in Los Angeles. But Paul Gauguin’s La Maison du Pen du, gardeuse de vache from his Nabis period failed to find enough bidders to meet its $6-8 million estimate, selling instead at its reserve for $4,930,000.
Frida Kahlo’s $54.7 million record
The evening continued with a section entirely dedicated to Surrealism, as the movement continues to gain momentum, further ignited by the major Surrealist show that has just opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and as its unsettling aesthetic resonates uncannily with the chaos, sentiments and desire to exorcise it that define our time. In only one night, Sotheby’s placed more than $123 million of Surrealist works, the highest total for Surrealist art ever sold in one evening at Sotheby’s.
Frida Kahlo’s El sueño (La cama) from 1940 achieved $54.7 million with fees, becoming the most expensive work by a female artist. Sotheby’s
The dedicated single-owner sale Exquisite Corpus offered works from one of the most distinguished private Surrealist collections, accumulated over four decades, yet kept rigorously unnamed in keeping with the movement’s aura of mystery. Nonetheless, given that many of the lots appeared in the Guggenheim’s 1999 exhibition “Surrealism: Two Private Eyes,” which celebrated the collections of Daniel Filipacchi and record producer Nesuhi Ertegun—who together assembled the most important grouping of Surrealist art in private hands—we can reasonably speculate that the consignor is most likely the Ertegun estate, especially once noticing that several works list in their provenance that they were acquired from the Parisian dealer Daniel Filipacchi, ruling him out as the consignor. Artnews reached the same conclusion, reporting that the 1940 Kahlo was consigned by the estate of Selma Ertegun, who built the collection with her late husband Nesuhi Ertegun. The session closed with a white-glove result of $98.1 million, with 67 percent of works selling above their high estimates.
The undisputed star of the collection was Frida Kahlo’s masterpiece of mystery and spirituality, El sueño (La cama), which ignited spirited international bidding before hammering at $47 million, or $54.7 million with fees, to Anna Di Stasi, Sotheby’s senior vice president and head of the Latin American art department. The result not only set a new record for the artist but also for any woman artist at auction, surpassing the previous $44.4 million benchmark set by Georgia O’Keeffe in 2014. The mystical canvas had been purchased by the consignor at Sotheby’s in 1980 for $51,000 and remained in the collection since then, marking a return of roughly 107,000 percent.
Depicting a skeleton floating above the artist as she lies in her bed—herself suspended midair as a fragile terrestrial vessel—Kahlo visualizes what art historian Whitney Chadwick describes as the “Mexican belief in the indivisible unity of life and death.” Considered a key work in Kahlo’s career, where she reached the height of her symbolic and psychological resonance, the canvas boasts a major exhibition history, having appeared in “Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti” (1982-83) at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the Haus am Waldsee in Hamburg, Kunstverein Hannover, Kulturhuset Stockholm, New York University’s Grey Art Gallery and the Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico City. It also featured prominently in the Guggenheim’s 1999 show “Surrealism: Two Private Eyes,” and in the Tate’s landmark Kahlo survey in 2005, which later traveled to the Walker Art Center and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007-08.
We will see this masterpiece again soon in a slate of upcoming exhibitions, including “Frida y Diego: The Last Dream” at MoMA in New York (March 22-September 7, 2026), “Frida: The Making of an Icon” at Tate Modern in London (June 25, 2026-January 3, 2027), “Frida Kahlo—The Painter” at Fondation Beyeler in Basel (January 31-May 17, 2027), and “The Autonomous Gaze” at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Kunstmuseum Basel, the Espoo Museum of Modern Art and BOZAR Brussels (December 2026–July 2028).
Another standout of the evening, Salvador Dalí’s jewel-like Symbiose de la tête aux coquillages, captivated several bidders with its hallucinatory power, reaching $4,198,000 (est. $2-3 million) on the phone with an Asian bidder. With a distinguished exhibition history—from the Hayward Gallery’s Dada and Surrealism Reviewed (1978), to Centre Pompidou’s “Salvador Dalí: rétrospective, 1920-1980 (1979-80),” to the Guggenheim’s “Surrealism: Two Private Eyes (1999)”—the work was acquired from Daniel Filipacchi in Paris in 1977 and remained with the consignor ever since, meaning they were also responsible for these museum loans.
The market for Paul Delvaux also remains strong, with his haunting Composition reaching the high end of its estimate and selling for $3.8 million (est. $2.5-3.5 million).
Female Surrealists remain a bright spot. First exhibited in 1953 as part of her solo show at Alexander Iolas in 1958 and formerly in the collection of William N Copley, Dorothea Tanning’s otherworldly Interior with Sudden Joy sold for $3.2 million (est. $2-3 million), setting a new record for the artist. Her previous record, Endgame (1944), achieved $2.3 million at Christie’s last May.
Dorothea Tanning’s otherworldly Interior with Sudden Joy sold for $3.2 million (est. $2-3 million), setting a new record for the artist. Sotheby’s
Highly coveted among collectors are the extremely rare paintings on masonite by Remedios Varo. Created shortly after Varo fled war-torn Europe, marking a pivotal shift in the artist’s storied practice, her Sans titre from 1943 approached the million mark after fees, landing at $952,500 (est. $500,000-700,000). Her current record, Revelación, was set last May at Christie’s at $6.22 million, surpassing her earlier $6.19 million record for Armonía (Autorretrato Sugerente) in 2020. Reflecting the growing curatorial effort to decentralize Surrealism beyond Paris, the recent major survey celebrating the movement’s centenary dedicates its final room to a compelling dialogue between Varo and Leonora Carrington.
Another striking leap came for the French artist, illustrator and long-underrecognized Surrealist insider Valentine Hugo, whose Le Crapaud de Maldoror climbed to $825,555 after seven bidders pushed it far beyond its $150,000-200,000 estimate. And for those who enjoy the footnotes of Surrealist intrigue, the piece dates from the period when Hugo was also romantically entangled with André Breton.
New attention to Surrealist influences in Latin American modernism also propelled Óscar Domínguez’s La Machine à écrire, which more than doubled its high estimate and sold for $3.7 million (est. $1-1.5 million). More broadly, as institutions work to broaden the canon, overlooked figures outside Surrealism’s Parisian core are gaining the long-overdue recognition they deserve.
One of them is Austrian-Mexican artist Wolfgang Paalen, a member of Abstraction-Création from 1934 to 1935, who joined the Surrealist movement after relocating to Mexico in 1935 and remained a significant figure until 1942. His revelatory, surreal landscape, Fata Alaska, set a new auction record for the artist at $1,016,000 (est. $350,000-450,000).
Another double record arrived courtesy of Hans Bellmer, who broke his auction record twice in one night. First, his uncanny gouache Main et Bras achieved $508,000 (est. $100,000-200,000). Then, a rare and intensely erotic oil on canvas—a medium he rarely used, being far better known for his photographs of dolls—nearly reached the million-dollar mark, fetching a record-setting $942,000 (est. $300,000-400,000). “The starting-point of desire, with respect to the intensity of its images, is not in a perceptible whole but in the detail,” Bellmer wrote in his anatomy of image. “The essential point to retain from the monstrous dictionary of analogies/antagonisms which constitute the dictionary of the image is that a given detail, such as a leg, is perceptible, accessible to memory and available, in short, is real.” It is a reflection that perfectly encapsulates the tension between fascination and horror, erotism and violence that animates all his seductive yet unsettling work.
A $97 million Modern Evening
The evening concluded with the core offering of the Modern Evening auction, which across its 29 lots generated $97 million, surpassing the pre-sale estimate of $71.1-101.9 million. One of the evening’s most anticipated lots, René Magritte’s Le Jockey Perdu, led the sale, achieving $12.3 million after fees. The exquisite gouache encapsulates Magritte’s signature play with visual paradoxes, maintaining the sense of spatial disorientation and uncanniness—alongside the sly playfulness—that runs through his entire oeuvre. First conceived as a papier collé in 1926, the motif was quickly followed by an oil of the same title, which headlined the artist’s first one-man exhibition in 1927 at Galerie Le Centaure in Brussels. Evidently fascinated by the theme, Magritte returned to the image of the lost jockey in multiple gouaches and oils throughout his career. The work came from the collection of the late real estate magnate Matthew Bucksbaum and his wife Carolyn, whose group of works in the sale brought a combined total of $25.2 million.
Despite the nearly three-hour marathon, the Modern session opened energetically with Joan Miró’s oil-on-burlap panel, Personnages et oiseau devant le soleil, also from the Bucksbaum Collection. It prompted a dynamic bidding battle between seven contenders, rapidly pushing it far beyond its $400,000-600,000 estimate to land at $2,368,000. The couple had acquired the work in 1998, when it last appeared at Sotheby’s, consigned by Perls Galleries.
Other top results of the evening included Georgia O’Keeffe’s Large Dark Red Leaves on White, which landed at $7.9 million, just shy of its high estimate. Jean Dubuffet’s Restaurant Rougeit II sat comfortably within its range, selling for $7.5 million. Degas’s pastel of three ballerinas, Trois danseuses, was chased by five bidders and fetched $5.8 million.
René Magritte’s Le Jockey Perdu led the Modern Evening sale, achieving $12.3 million after fees. Sotheby’s
A Modern sale would be incomplete without Monet. One of his famed Impressionistic views, capturing the shifting light around Rouen Cathedral, more than doubled its low estimate, selling for $7.4 million after a lengthy bidding war among six bidders in different geographies. The painting was practically fresh to auction, having remained in the Schlumberger collection for over 60 years, and appeared at auction for the first time last night.
Another artist who inspired strong interest was Childe Hassam, one of the leading American Impressionists and a central figure in what became known as the “Ten,” the group that broke from the Society of American Artists to champion a more progressive, modern approach at the turn of the 20th century. His Newport, October Sundown from 1901 was fiercely pursued by four bidders, achieving $2,002,000 above a $1.8 million high estimate. The painting came from the Sam and Marilyn Fox Collection, two prominent patrons and civic leaders from the St. Louis region, whose group generated a total of $2.7 million, exceeding its high estimate of $2.4 million.
As MoMA finally pays overdue tribute to the work of Cuban artist Wifredo Lam with a show that opened earlier this month, his Ídolo (Oyá/Divinité de l’air et de la mort) drew strong attention in the room, selling for $7.4 million and marking the second-highest auction price ever achieved for the artist. The renewed institutional spotlight clearly reinforced market confidence, positioning the canvas as another highlight of the evening and Lam as a name we will likely see rise further at auction in the coming seasons.
While the Modern section closed with white gloves, several lots still fell below their low estimates. Arthur Garfield Dove’s Rose and Locust Stump, backed by a guarantee and irrevocable bids, sold for $681,000, nearly half its low estimate, despite its extensive exhibition history. Andrew Wyeth’s dark landscape, East Waldoboro, also sold below expectations at $3,588,000 (est. $4-6 million). Jacques Lipchitz’s sculpture Baigneuse assise went for half its low estimate at $381,000, despite its prestigious provenance from the Geri Brawerman Collection, which generated a total of $16.7 million during the night.
Sotheby’s continued with its day sales on November 21, which delivered an additional aggregated total above $51 million, between the $46,404,999 of the Modern Day Sale and the $4,912,868 for the Exquisite Corpus Day session. Sotheby’s Contemporary day sale, held a few days earlier, generated $111.4 million, the highest total ever for a Day sale at Sotheby’s. The white-glove offering for the Lauder day session brought the total for the Lauder collection to $531.3 million.
Ultimately, Sotheby’s was the clear winner this round, generating a solid and unequivocally successful $1.173 billion with its Evening and Day sales. Meanwhile, Christie’s fall marquee sales totaled $965 million, while Phillips brought in $92,139,589 across its various sessions. In total, across all three auction houses, the November marquee sales have generated more than $2.2 billion, a number that suggests the market has rediscovered some of its energy. Miami, however, will be the real litmus test of the season, because what we saw in action and at auction this week was only the very top of the market.
The October evening sales brought the London auction houses their highest totals in years. Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Sales aren’t just buoyant at Frieze this week—London’s auction houses also saw their strongest results in years, signaling renewed confidence at the top of the market. Kicking off the action, Christie’s 20th/21st Century London Evening Sale on October 15 achieved a robust £106,925,400 ($142,852,000), marking the auction house’s best Frieze Week evening sale in more than seven years. The total was up 30 percent from last year, with 92 percent sold by lot and 90 percent sold by value. Katharine Arnold and Keith Gill, vice-chairmen of 20th/21st century art, Christie’s Europe, reported entering the week with confidence and “carefully priced material,” noting a “spirited and well-attended” public viewing at King Street. “We are proud to have realized such a solid outcome during Frieze Week, a moment that highlights the energy and cultural vitality of London’s art scene,” they told press.
Leading the sale was Peter Doig’s monumental Ski Jacket (1994), which sold for £14,270,000 ($19,064,720) against a £6,000,000-8,000,000 estimate after more than 13 minutes of fierce bidding between six contenders. Carrying a third-party guarantee, the painting had been acquired in 1994 by Danish collector Ole Faarup, and 100 percent of the proceeds will now go to his foundation. This unusual arrangement also helped Christie’s secure two additional Doigs, despite the artist having become a rare presence at auction.
With an extensive exhibition history, Doig’s Country Rock (1998-1999) nearly hit seven figures in sterling—though it comfortably did so in dollars—achieving £9,210,000 ($12,304,560). A third, more abstract and heavily textured work, also acquired by Faarup in 1994, sold a few lots later just shy of its high estimate at £635,000. The strong results coincided with the opening of Doig’s new show at the Serpentine in London, further fueling demand.
Christie’s evening opened with a standout result for Domenico Gnoli, whose hyperrealistic painting fetched £977,000, doubling its low estimate. Immediately after, a more impressionistic landscape by René Magritte landed at £762,990—well above expectations—reinforcing both continued momentum for the artist and the broader strength of surrealism. Later in the sale, Magritte’s drawing La veillée (The Vigil) exceeded its £500,000 high estimate, selling for £812,800.
The 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale at Christie’s resulted in several new artist records. Photo: Guy Bell | Courtesy of Christie’s
Picasso, as usual, delivered dependable results, with several works selling above or within estimate, including the £2,002,000 oil and ink on panel Chevalier, pages et moine. The modern and impressionist offerings also performed within expectations, largely due to the quality of the material: a Marc Chagall painting fetched £2,246,000, while a lyrical bucolic scene by Nabis painter Maurice Denis sold for £1,697,000. Meanwhile, a horizontal abstract work by Hurvin Anderson exceeded expectations, fetching £3,222,000.
The sale also set several new world auction records, underscoring the ongoing momentum for women artists and long-overlooked names being rediscovered. Paula Rego’s Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (1995) soared to £3,466,000 ($4.63 million), setting a new landmark record for the artist. Suzanne Valadon’s Deux nus ou Le bain (1923) followed with a £1,016,000 ($1.36 million) record. Contemporary sculptor Annie Morris’s Bronze Stack 9, Copper Blue (2015) achieved £482,600 ($644,754), while Danish artist Esben Weile Kjær set his first auction record with Aske and Johan upside down kissing in Power Play at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND (2020), which sold for £25,400 ($33,934).
Among the few unsold works of the night were Yoshitomo Nara’s drawing Haze Days, which failed to find a buyer at its ambitious £6.5-8.5 million estimate, and a gray monochrome by Gerhard Richter—even with the artist opening a major survey at the Fondation Louis Vuitton during Paris Art Week. A black Blinky Palermo also went unsold, while a colorful but slightly less iconic Nicholas Party work, Tree Trunks, was withdrawn ahead of the sale.
Notably, Christie’s reported that 56 percent of buyers in the evening sale came from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with only 28 percent from the Americas and 16 percent from the Asia-Pacific region. This confirms revived demand in the regional market, as also evidenced earlier in the day by the heavy attendance at Frieze.
A £17.6M Bacon headlined at Sotheby’s
Led by a £17.6 million Francis Bacon, Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction closed at $63.5 million. While the total was less than half of Christie’s the night before, the comparison needs context: this was Sotheby’s third major London evening sale since March—whereas it was Christie’s first of the season. Sotheby’s has already staged two major white-glove sales this year—the £101 million Karpidas collection auction in September and the £84 million Summer Evening Sale—meaning that with last night’s results, the house has now sold £233 million worth of modern and contemporary art in London since March. Moreover, the £63.5 million total marked the highest October evening sale result since 2023, up 25 percent from the previous year.
Since March, Sotheby’s has sold £240 million worth of Modern and Contemporary art in London. Courtesy Sotheby’s
“Frieze is always a special time for London, with so many collectors in town whose presence we always feel in our sales,” Ottilie Windsor, co-head of contemporary art, Sotheby’s London, told Observer. “It was great to have them with us tonight and to see so much live action in the room, helping sustain the strong momentum we’ve built over the past few seasons here.”
The Francis Bacon result came after 20 minutes of suspense and fierce bidding across multiple phone specialists and a bidder in the room, pushing the final price to nearly double its £6-9 million estimate. In U.S. dollars, the hammer plus fees rose to $17.6 million. For comparison, the last notable Bacon—Portrait of Man with Glasses II—sold at Christie’s in March for £6,635,000 ($8.4 million), and that work was almost a third smaller. Another, smaller Bacon, closer in scale to Christie’s example, sold here for £5,774,000 ($7.3 million). Bacon’s record still stands at $142.4 million, set at Christie’s New York in 2013 with his triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud.
The sale opened strong, with solid results for several younger contemporary artists who have recently drawn both market and institutional attention. At lot one, a painting by Ser Serpas landed at £27,940 ($35,700)—just under estimate but still enough to set a new auction record for the artist. The California-born painter, who studied in Switzerland and gained early recognition there, was recently included in a MoMA PS1 exhibition and held a solo show at Kunsthalle Basel during the June fairs.
Two of the hottest rising names in recent auctions—driven largely by Asian demand and limited primary-market availability—followed. An abstract by Emma McIntyre, now a Zwirner favorite, sold for £50,800 ($65,000), and Yu Nishimura achieved the same price. Both works carried estimates of £40,000-60,000, reflecting the tight competition at this level.
In between, a 2009 painting by Hernan Bas acquired from Perrotin sold just above its low estimate, likely to its guarantor, at £254,000 ($323,000). Momentum continued for Lucy Bull, whose kaleidoscopic abstraction from 2021—originally acquired from Paris gallery High Art—more than doubled its top estimate of £500,000 ($635,000), landing at £1,260,000 ($1.6 million) after being chased by five bidders, most from Asia.
Overall, the auction confirmed the ongoing strength of the market for women artists, all of whom sold above estimate. Sotheby’s also posted strong results for Paula Rego: her pastel on paper Snow White Playing with her Father’s Trophies sold within estimate for £900,000 (about $1.15 million), while Jenny Saville’s charcoal study exceeded its high estimate, selling for £533,000 (around $675,000).
Among other notable six-figure results, a monumental El Anatsui sold just shy of its high estimate at £1,999,000 (about $2.53 million). Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (The Arm) from 1982—a pivotal year in the artist’s rise—landed squarely within estimate at £5,530,000 (approximately $7 million). Andy Warhol’s Four Pink Marilyn (Reversal) followed, selling within estimate for £4,326,000 (about $5.5 million).
The masters also held firm. Both of Auguste Rodin’s monumental sculptures from his seminal series The Burghers of Calais sold within estimate to a collector in the room: Jean de Fiennes, vêtu, Grand Modèle achieved £762,000 ($1 million), while Pierre de Wiessant, vita, Grand Modèle, vêtu sold for £889,000 ($1.2 million).
The market for Lucio Fontana also showed signs of recovery—at least for major works. His rare blue 14-slashed Concetto spaziale, Attese sold just above estimate at £2.8 million (about $3.7 million) following a fierce bidding war among four potential buyers. The deep blue of the canvas was inspired by Yves Klein’s IKB pigment—but Klein’s own Untitled Fire Colour Painting (FC 28), which appeared one lot earlier, surprisingly went unsold after failing to meet its £1.8-2 million estimate ($2.3-2.5 million), despite both an irrevocable bid and a guarantee.
Other unsold works of the night included paintings by Frank Auerbach and Daniel Richter. Still, Sotheby’s achieved a healthy 89 percent sell-through rate by lot.
On October 17, Sotheby’s also staged a single-owner sale of 17 iPad drawings by David Hockney from his celebrated series The Arrival of Spring. The results were remarkable: the group doubled its high estimate to reach £6.2 million ($8.3 million), achieving a white-glove sale and setting a new auction record for the artist. With this result, Sotheby’s London has now brought in £240 million (approximately $304 million) since March. Notably, American buyers accounted for 40 percent of the purchasers in the Hockney sale, underscoring the continued global demand for blue-chip British artists.
A £2,374,000 Basquiat tops Phillips’ London Evening Sale
On October 16 at 5 p.m., Phillips hosted its London Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale, achieving a total of £10,332,200 ($13,884,410) across 22 lots. The auction was more modest—and less successful—than the others, posting a 32 percent drop compared to last year after four lots failed to sell and four others were withdrawn before the start. The evening was led by a new auction record for Emma McIntyre: Seven types of ambiguity (2021) sold for £167,700 ($225,355) from a modest £50,000-70,000 estimate, edging past her previous record of $201,600 set in May 2025 at Phillips Hong Kong. The second-highest lot of the night was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (Pestus) (1982), which comfortably met its pre-sale estimate at £2,374,000 ($3,190,181).
An energetic moment from Phillips’s London Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale. Courtesy Phillips
Once again, contemporary women artists confirmed their momentum at Phillips, reaching a high point after Emma McIntyre’s record-setting result when Flora Yukhnovich’s My Body knows Un-Heard of Songs (2017) fetched £1,276,000 ($1,714,689) against a £900,000-1,500,000 estimate.
Opening the sale was a purple-and-pink abstraction by Martha Jungwirth—now a familiar presence across Thaddaeus Ropac’s fair booths—which exceeded expectations at £180,600. A few lots later, an early work by Sasha Gordon sold just shy of its high estimate at £116,100. Demand for Gordon has been reignited by her blockbuster solo debut at Zwirner in New York, which made her the youngest artist represented by the mega-gallery. Painted in 2019 during her studies, Drive Through marks a transitional moment in her shift toward the more discursive, cartoon-inflected style that catapulted her into the global spotlight.
Later in the sale, Noah Davis’s Mitrice Richardson (2012) found a buyer within estimate at £451,500 ($606,726), while Derek Fordjour’s Regatta Pattern Study (2020) fetched £528,900 ($710,736), surpassing its high estimate of £500,000. Other notable results included Sean Scully’s Wall of Light Summer Night 5.10 (2010), which achieved £967,500 ($1,300,127) against a £600,000-800,000 estimate, and Robert Rauschenberg’s Gospel Yodel (Salvage Series), which sold for £709,500 ($953,426), more than doubling its £350,000-550,000 estimate. A 2012 sculpture by Bernar Venet fetched £516,000 ($693,401) from a £250,000-350,000 estimate, reflecting the artist’s rising demand—particularly in Asia.
Not everything landed. A Warhol-inspired Banksy portrait of Kate Moss, estimated at £700,000-1,000,000, failed to find a buyer, while a cacophonic abstract work by Sigmar Polke from 1983-84 also went unsold, likely due to its overly ambitious £600,000-800,000 estimate relative to current market demand for the artist.
For Olivia Thornton, Phillips’s head of modern and contemporary art, Europe, the overall positive auction reflected “the vibrancy of contemporary collecting” and reaffirmed London’s enduring magnetism: “London remains the cultural crossroads of the global art market.”
Pokémon cards are part of a broader franchise universe that extends the brand’s economic footprint into several different categories of consumption. Photo by Behrouz MEHRI / AFP) (Photo by BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP via Getty Images
The question came to me during a recent trip to Japan when, wandering through Tokyo, I listened to a rap by the artist Takashi Murakami. Just the day before—on a Monday, with galleries closed—at an artist’s suggestion, I had visited Nakano Broadway, a mecca for manga and anime lovers, or simply for the nostalgic. There, I encountered a market frenzy I wasn’t fully aware of. While browsing vintage stores for Chanel and Louis Vuitton bags in Shibuya, I saw whole shops dedicated exclusively to Pokémon cards and figurines. Inside, the buyers weren’t kids but people my age and older, actively collecting memorabilia that tethered them to their childhoods—objects that have also acquired undeniable economic and investment value.
I was born in the 1990s. Pokémon, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Dragon Ball and countless other anime and manga didn’t just fill my childhood television programming—in Italy’s Berlusconi era, private channels like Canale 5 and Italia 1 devoted vast blocks of airtime to imported Japanese anime—but introduced me to a world of trading cards, toys, video games and every sort of gadget that could build entire imaginative and narrative universes around us. These worlds shaped not only my and my peers’ play but, I’m convinced, our imaginations and even our personalities.
In Nakano, as on previous trips to Japan, I found myself searching for that one Pokémon or Digimon figure I was missing, compelled to buy it. What drove all this was not only nostalgia but also the enduring effects of that world-building and branding—an entire cultural and narrative ecosystem sticky enough to hold our attention long after childhood.
Around the same time, the Wall Street Journal published an article by Krystal Hur highlighting how Pokémon cards have become a “hot investment,” reportedly reaching a roughly 3,821 percent cumulative return since 2004, according to an index by analytics firm Card Ladder tracking trading-card values through August. That figure eclipses even the S&P 500’s 483 percent rise over the same period or Meta Platforms’ 1,844 percent climb since going public in 2012.
The craze for the monster trading cards, first launched in 1996, apparently intensified during the pandemic after influencer Logan Paul revealed in 2022 that he had acquired a near-perfect-grade Pikachu Illustrator card worth $5.3 million, setting a Guinness World Record for the priciest Pokémon card ever sold in a private deal. Even if the exact figure is difficult to verify, the public market has its own headline records: In March 2022, Heritage Auctions sold a 1999 First Edition Holographic Charizard (PSA 10)—the iconic chase card—for $420,000. Another sold earlier this year for $175,000.
Hur’s article also featured a handful of “success stories” of thirty-somethings who now “diversify their investments” through Pokémon cards, like a 27-year-old account manager in Ohio who funded his fiancée’s 3.5-carat diamond engagement ring and part of their wedding by selling the collection he had begun in the 1990s. (How many times have I wished my mother hadn’t thrown mine away?) Yet one collector openly admitted that his buying was based less on financial calculus and more on sentiment: “A lot of us are chasing pieces of our childhood,” said Matthew Griffin.
Influencer Logan Paul revealed in 2022 that he had acquired a near-perfect Pikachu Illustrator card for $5.3 million, setting a Guinness World Record for the priciest Pokémon card ever sold in a private deal. Source: Web | The Pokémon Company / PSA
Skeptics argue that the Pokémon card market is inconsistent and irrational because it runs largely on nostalgia and symbolic value. Others counter that it may still be safer than other pandemic-era alternative assets, like baseball cards or sports memorabilia, because fictional characters like Pikachu are timeless in a way no athlete’s career can ever be.
This brings us to a series of striking parallels—and key juxtapositions—between the Pokémon card market, other nostalgia-driven economies and today’s art market. Looking at these could reveal insights the art world can learn from Millennial and Gen X buying behavior as it struggles to attract the next generation of collectors.
Nostalgia-driven numbers
Pokémon is just one of many I.P.s that have surged in popularity among Millennial collectors, where nostalgia cycles have become engines of value creation. In recent conversations with peers across different regions—particularly in the Asia-Pacific and the U.S.—I’ve noticed a shared trend: vintage cameras, vinyl records and even relics like VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs are becoming increasingly coveted by Millennials and Gen Z. The market for retro consoles (e.g., Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Sega Dreamcast) and the cartridges that accompanied their childhoods is booming. In July 2021, Heritage Auctions sold a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 (1996, N64) for $1.56 million—the first video game to break the million-dollar mark at auction.
A physical object tethered to an analog past now carries both aesthetic and identity value, particularly in today’s hyper-technological age. For those of us who grew up watching the dizzying curve of technological evolution unfold—from cassette to CD, from the first unlimited SMS plans to smartphones—these objects are anchors of memory and existential witnesses. The same appetite drives younger buyers toward comic books, graphic novels, vintage watches and retro fashion. Casio G-Shock, Swatch and Seiko dive watches, once essentially disposable, are now hunted down in places like Nakano Broadway or through online resellers. Fashion brands have capitalized on this by recycling Millennial childhood aesthetics tied to the 1990s—Balenciaga is a clear example. Prices for Jordan retros, Nike Dunks and Adidas Superstars are climbing, powered by ’90s and early 2000s nostalgia, while new sneaker drops sell as much on ‘I wanted these when I was 12’ as on freshness of design, as evidenced by the revivals of Puma classics or Onitsuka Tigers.
A copy of Super Mario 64 sold for $1.56 million at Heritage Auctions on July 11, 2021, shattering the world record for a video game. Courtesy Heritage Auctions
These markets operate on symbolic value, defined above all by sentiment, which is not so different from the symbolic economy that underpins art prices. Yet for these items, nostalgia—when combined with rarity and scarcity, often manufactured through limited editions, blind boxes, or surprise drops—is enough to justify soaring prices, even among Millennials who are more skeptical, more price-sensitive, and less willing to overpay. As Tim Schneider recently pointed out in The Gray Market, the greatest challenge for an art dealer today is persuading skeptical buyers that a work—especially by an artist their own age—is “good enough” to merit the price tag, at a time when everything else in life is also more expensive.
So why is this different? In the case of nostalgia-driven collectibles, memory itself becomes monetized, justifying even six-figure sales when the object is the only tangible key left to unlock it. But the real question is: What forged such powerful sentimental bonds that they hardened into identity and culture, transforming disposable childhood ephemera into adult investments?
Enduring cultural properties
Pokémon cards derive meaning from a broader franchise universe, which anchors each product within a wider narrative and cultural value. Branding has become synonymous with world-building, capable of creating enduring, authentic cultural and emotional resonance—an identitarian connection that goes far beyond simple fandom. This is the power of storytelling, of making a myth that accompanies an object. It’s a factor that the market for Pokémon trading cards shares with other collectible toys, such as LEGO, action figures, or comics tied to franchises like Star Wars or Marvel, among others.
The recent Labubu craze, which rapidly expanded from Hong Kong youth culture to the wider world—with people lining up and even fighting to collect this kawaii monstrous plush—follows the same logic. But it has already begun crossing into the art industry. During its Basel edition in June, Art Basel released a limited-edition Labubu figurine (in its signature “Basel blue”) exclusively at the Art Basel Shop. Only 100 were made, priced at SFr 200. The drop sold out immediately, and on-site whispers of flippers floating $5,000 resale offers surfaced within minutes. The current Labubu auction record is for a human-sized “giant” mint green version, which sold for around $150,552 (¥1.08 million) at a Yongle International auction in Beijing.
A shopper at the Labubu pop-up in June in Shanghai. Photo by Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images
All these markets thrive on cults of character built through manufactured mythology, transforming into IP-based storytelling that multiplies value through merchandising. In the art world, by contrast, the focus remains primarily on artist biography and “serious” critical discourse, resistant to pop-cultural world-building and even to branding. “When you buy a Rolex from Rolex, it says Rolex; paintings from Gagosian are signed Koons or Saville,” collector Jeff Magid wrote in an opinion piece for ARTnews, addressing similar questions.
This provocation reveals how the art world continues to fall short in offering status-signaling objects—and, I would add, community belonging and recognizability—that luxury brands and contemporary collectibles have perfected. Pokémon, Labubu, sneakers and vintage collectibles (across tech, fashion and design) are unmistakable lifestyle signals. Combined with scarcity and shared rituals, they build and sustain cultural capital that can be seamlessly converted into economic capital.
Connected communities and lower buy-in barriers
Accessibility matters. Pokémon cards, Labubu and most of the collectibles markets mentioned above have achieved early onboarding because of their relative affordability. Pokémon packs or Labubu blind boxes start at $10-20, a low barrier that draws kids and teens into the narrative and the act of collecting early, setting up a long-tail trajectory to remain engaged and eventually move into higher price points as their disposable income grows. Nostalgia cycles then keep the value alive, ensuring continuity across generations.
Interestingly, in recent days, former auction-house enfant terrible Loïc Gouzer reposted on Instagram his now-iconic promo video for his cross-category curated sale, If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday…, held at Christie’s in May 2014, where he placed Basquiat next to Koons, Hirst, rare cars and sneakers for the first time in what was then a radical act. The auction was revolutionary at the time because it embraced streetwear marketing logic: drop a disruptive trailer, build hype, collapse categories and make collecting feel cool rather than fusty and exclusive.
A still from Christie’s promotional video for the If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday… sale. Christie’s
Coming from a younger generation into the aging world of auctions, Gouzer instinctively understood the need to reinvent storytelling and branding, adopting the cultural language of younger audiences—skate videos, streetwear aesthetics, cross-genre mashups—to reframe how value was perceived. His cross-category auctions also tapped into the logic of nostalgia cycles: pairing high art with luxury toys of a different order—cars, watches, memorabilia—made the auction floor feel like a Millennial collector’s fantasy closet.
Brand dilution and cross-industry myth
Here we can return to the “illumination” sparked by discovering that Murakami had also ventured into rap, among so many other expressions of his style—or better said, of his “branding.” Takashi Murakami is arguably one of the first artists to adopt and fully integrate these dynamics, making pop-cultural world-building a core element of his aesthetics and practice. Through Kaikai Kiki, he blurred the line between fine art and merchandise. By applying his instantly recognizable, fresh, youthful style—populated by kawaii characters rooted in Japanese manga, objects, and even experiences—he pursued a pop-culture logic of world-building while embracing a degree of brand dilution that lowered barriers to entry. In this way, a teenager buying a keychain or plush mascot at ComplexCon could enter the same collector’s universe as a seasoned buyer spending millions at Gagosian or at auction on one of his monumental paintings.
Notably, Murakami didn’t invent this playbook; he absorbed a cultural logic already deeply embedded in Japanese pop culture, as his notion of “Superflat” was designed to articulate. Capsule collections, limited drops, and the collapse of boundaries between “high” and “low” have long defined Japan’s cultural and creative industries. Early streetwear pioneers like A Bathing Ape (BAPE), COMME des GARÇONS and Neighborhood built empires on scarcity and hype. At the same time, manga and anime cultivated devoted fandoms where merchandise was as central as the story itself.
By asserting that contemporary Japanese visual culture had already flattened its hierarchies, Murakami’s “Superflat-ness” offered a theoretical framework that made his fusion of fine art, commerce, and pop culture not only coherent but essential to his practice—never a compromise of artistic integrity. Even his collaborations with Louis Vuitton or Uniqlo weren’t betrayals of art but natural continuations of a Japanese cultural economy where brand, object, and fandom constantly intertwine, creating symbolic universes that buyers can both belong to and collect.
Alongside Murakami, KAWS stands as another powerful model, this time on the American side. His toys and Uniqlo collaborations have already fostered a generation of young collectors who later graduated to six-figure Companion sculptures as their first major art purchases. Daniel Arsham has played a similar game, targeting Millennial collectors with his Pokémon sculptures while building pipelines through more accessible editions and sneaker collaborations.
The series, including the gadget-inspired works, began as a formal collaboration between Daniel Arsham and The Pokémon Company, which partnered to present Relics of Kanto Through Time (2020) at the PARCO Museum Tokyo, where he reimagined Pokémon as archaeological relics unearthed a thousand years in the future. The collaboration continued with A Ripple in Time, a series of exhibitions and installations across Tokyo organized by Nanzuka that paired Arsham’s fictional-archaeology style with Pokémon lore. This phase expanded the project to include bronze sculptures, concept art, animation, and reinterpreted Pokémon cards rendered in Arsham’s signature eroded aesthetic. Most of the Pokémon sculptures were produced in extremely limited editions—99, 500, or fewer units—and distributed through raffles or lottery systems rather than web drops, creating built-in scarcity and positioning the project squarely at the intersection of art markets and collectible fandom economies.
Meanwhile, a museum like MoMA already seems attuned to both the potential and the risk of brand dilution in cross-industry collaborations. The institution recently announced a capsule collection with Mattel featuring seven products inspired by artists and artworks from MoMA’s permanent collection. The figurines range from a Van Gogh Barbie wearing an evening gown printed with Starry Night (1889) to two Little People Collector figures modeled after Monet’s Water Lilies and Salvador Dalí, complete with his unmistakable mustache. The collection also includes an Uno deck featuring details from six MoMA-owned artworks and a Hot Wheels replica inspired by the museum’s Citroën DS 23 Sedan, among other items. Released on November 11, just in time for the holiday season, these art-infused toys will be sold at MoMA’s Design Stores in New York and Japan, as well as on the Design Store’s website and the Mattel Creations site. The partnership also includes Mattel funding MoMA’s Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Family Art Lab, an interactive space for kids and families on the museum’s first floor.
As I argued recently, cross-industry collaborations offer artists crucial gateways while cultivating new audiences. At the same time, platforms like Avant Arte are proving that there is a young, eager audience ready to engage with art—so long as editions feel authentic and accessible, and community remains central to the narrative. According to recent surveys, the global collectibles market has surpassed $496 billion in 2025. If the art world wants to avoid shrinking in both volume and financial weight as it struggles to broaden its buyer base, then making art more “collectible”—at multiple price points and across different stages of life—may be the only sustainable strategy for cultivating lifelong engagement from the next generation of buyers.
The Little People Collector™ x Claude Monet figures were inspired by the artist’s Water Lilies. Photo : Courtesy Mattel and MoMA
Last Spring, Kasmin New York staged “Les Lalanne: Zoophites,” featuring works by the acclaimed French designers drawn entirely from the collection of their eldest daughter, Caroline Hamisky Lalanne. Courtesy of Kasmin
While global auction sales slipped 6.2 percent in the first half of 2025—with post-war and contemporary art down 19.3 percent to $1.22 billion, impressionist and modern sales dropping 7.7 percent and luxury barely budging (down 0.5 percent to $805.9 million)—design, decorative arts and furniture experienced significant momentum. According to ArTactic, the category surged 20.4 percent to reach $172 million in 2025, compared to $143 million the previous year. This growth occurred despite concerns over new tariffs. While fine art remains exempt from tariffs due to a legal loophole, design objects, antiquities and other collectibles are not, yet the market continues to thrive. This sustained growth is driven by a broader collector base and ongoing institutional interest, making it worth a deeper analysis of its various tiers and areas of activity.
Recent numbers from design auctions show strong growth: Sotheby’s design sales in New York this June achieved $37.5 million, followed by Christie’s with $23.6 million and Phillips, which staged just one sale, bringing in $4 million. Altogether, the June auctions saw a 62.3 percent year-on-year increase—proof that, at least for now, the design market is not just holding steady but gaining momentum. In the same period last year, Sotheby’s reported $19.5 million, Christie’s $15.5 million and Phillips $5.1 million across two sales with significantly more inventory.
The first half of 2025 marked a landmark period for design at Sotheby’s, according to chairman and co-worldwide head of 20th Century design, Jodi Pollack. Fueled by strong global demand, record-setting prices and an expanding international collector base, the market saw particular momentum among new and younger buyers, with increased cross-category collecting. Sotheby’s reported a $75 million combined total across New York and Paris this season, among the highest series totals ever for Sotheby’s Design sales worldwide. “These exceptional results reflect the galvanizing strength of the global design market and the discerning collectors who continue to passionately pursue rare pieces of extraordinary quality,” Pollack commented.
The Lalanne obsession continued its upward trajectory, but records were also shattered in unexpected areas: the monumental Danner Memorial Window—designed by Agnes Northrop for Tiffany Studios—achieved a staggering $12.4 million last November, setting a new auction world record for Tiffany glass. Not far behind, Frank Lloyd Wright’s double-pedestal lamp reached $7.5 million after an eleven-minute bidding war this May, marking another record in the category this year.
Tiffany Studios’ Stillman Memorial Window sold for $2,390,000 at Sotheby’s in June 2025. Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Another magnificent glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany, The Stillman Memorial Window, sold in June at Sotheby’s for $2,390,000 (estimate: $1.5-2.5 million) as part of the sale Masterpieces by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Featuring The Ann and Robert Fromer Collection. The sale generated $6.3 million (estimate: $3.6-$5.6 million) with 96 percent sold by lot and nearly 60 percent of lots selling above their high estimates. Notably, 21 percent of buyers participating in Sotheby’s design sales this June were new to the auction house.
Strong institutional demand is also driving the surge in the market for Tiffany Studios pieces, with museums actively acquiring the studio’s masterworks. In 2023, the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the three-part, 10-foot-tall, 7-foot-wide Garden Landscape, while this past May, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, announced its acquisition of the monumental stained glass window Mountain Landscape (Root Memorial Window).
Meanwhile, the remarkable market surge for François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne continues unabated, cementing the duo as blue-chip fixtures in the design-art hybrid space. According to Artprice, the average auction price for their works has more than quadrupled since 2015, with major pieces now regularly surpassing six figures. The current auction record belongs to François-Xavier’s 1964 Rhinocrétaire I, which sold for €18.33 million ($19.4 million) at Christie’s Paris in 2023.
Between 2019 and 2024, Sotheby’s and Christie’s sold over 700 works from the private collections of Les Lalanne and their daughters, Dorothée and Marie, through a series of high-profile auctions in Paris and New York, generating a combined total of $330.2 million.
Demand remains strong—just this June, François-Xavier’s Grand Rhinocrétaire II (2003) fetched $16.4 million at Sotheby’s, five times its low estimate and accounting for nearly a quarter of the auction week’s total revenue. Christie’s New York also staged a dedicated sale in October 2023, François-Xavier Lalanne, Sculpteur | Collection Dorothée Lalanne, featuring works from the artist’s daughter and curated by French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus, closing with white gloves and a $59 million total, with at least fourteen lots surpassing six figures.
This October, Di Donna Gallery will present a museum-quality exhibition featuring a groundbreaking dialogue between Magritte’s surreal vision and the whimsical world of the Lalanne couple. The show will highlight their shared surrealist sensibilities and historical connection through gallerist Alexander Iolas in the 1960s. Over fifty works will be on display, including rare pieces from the estates of François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, as well as paintings, works on paper and sculptures by René Magritte. Among the highlights is Magritte’s enigmatic L’ami intime (1958), which fetched $33.66 million at Christie’s London in March. During the last Venice Biennale, Ben Brown presented an extensive exhibition dedicated to the Lalannes, “Planète Lalanne,” featuring more than 150 works by the celebrated French duo.
The François-Xavier Lalanne, Sculpteur | Collection Dorothée Lalanne sale generated nearly $59 million at Christie’s New York in October 2024. Brian W. Ferry, all rights reserved
Phillips’ design specialist Kimberly Sørensen says the market is still strong, but more names are gaining momentum: their June Design auction in New York achieved a 91 percent sell-through rate by lot and 96 percent by value—an exceptional result. This followed their April Design sale in London, which reached 94 percent by lot and 97 percent by value. “These figures underscore the strength of the market and the continued appetite for exceptional design and craftsmanship,” Sørensen commented.
He told Observer that he’s seeing particular interest in female designers: Judy Kensley McKie’s Fish bench led Phillips’ June Design sale in New York, achieving $406,400 and setting a new world auction record for the artist. This, after her Leopard couch already led the top lot at Phillips’ London Design sale in April—further proof of her growing international appeal. Other standout female artists performing well in the recent sale included Line Vautrin and Claude Lalanne, whose works were among the session’s top lots. The American architect and designer George Nakashima also remains a beloved figure with a truly international market, according to Sørensen. “His daughter, Mira Nakashima, now the creative director of Nakashima Studio, is a remarkable designer in her own right and her work not only continues her father’s legacy of craftsmanship, but has also successfully introduced it to a new generation.”
Studio ceramics is another area in which Phillips has seen tremendous success. Phillips’ December New York sale, Moved by Beauty: Works by Lucie Rie from an Important Asian Collection, was a White Glove auction, which followed a dedicated London sale featuring Lucie Rie and Hans Coper. “We’re proud to hold the auction records for Rie and Coper and have previously set benchmarks for Lucie Rie and Doyle Lane,” he said.
Judy Kensley McKie’s Leopard Couch (1983) sold at Phillips’ April Design Sale for £177,800 ($237,736), while her Fish bench set a new record, achieving $406,400. Courtesy of Phillips
Sørensen confirms that design today attracts a broader and more diverse audience than ever. Even looking at their numbers, so far in 2025, 20 percent of Phillips’ design bidders were new to the auction house, which speaks to the category’s growing appeal. The Phillips specialist also points out that they’re seeing an encouraging rise in interest from younger collectors; Millennials and Gen Z now make up 20 percent of the Design bidders. “Many of them are drawn to the sustainability of the secondary market, where Design objects are not only beautiful but also environmentally conscious choices,” he explained. “Social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest have played a big role in this shift, making it easier than ever for collectors to discover and connect with designers across periods and geographies.”
Looking ahead to the final few months of 2025, Sørensen and his team are optimistic. “The momentum we’ve seen so far suggests sustained interest, especially as more seasoned and new collectors recognize the value and artistry within the category.”
Despite the swoon in the broader art market, design has continued to hit new highs with world record prices in all of Christie’s top markets, according to Alex Hemingway, Christie’s global head of design. Asked about the most sought-after names, he pointed to Lalanne, Giacometti, Tiffany and Royère, adding that today’s buyers are especially drawn to masterpiece-level works with strong provenance and compelling narratives.
George Nakashima’s Three-door room divider sold at Phillips for $209,550. Courtesy of Phillips
This June, Christie’s Design auction and the single-owner American Avant-Garde: The James D. Zellerbach Residence by Frances Elkins sale brought in a combined total of $23.6 million. Leading the auction was The Goddard Memorial Window by Tiffany Studios, which achieved $4,285,000, soaring past its $2-3 million estimate and becoming the second-highest price ever realized for a window from Tiffany’s studio. Nonetheless, the world record remains The Danner Memorial Window, which sold for $12.5 million with fees at Sotheby’s Modern Art evening sale last November. Before this, the studio’s record was $3.4 million for a Pond Lily lamp sold by Christie’s in 2018.
The Goddard Memorial Window, part of the American Avant-Garde sale, brought in $8.1 million, with 81 percent of lots selling at or above their high estimates. Other top-performing lots included two rare Oiseaux sculptures by Alberto Giacometti (sold for $2,954,000 and $2,833,000, respectively) and a pair of rare ‘Pyramides’ andirons (sold for $378,000). Jean-Michel Frank’s Aragon low table sold for $819,000, and his ceiling light brought in $277,200—more than five times its low estimate.
Lalanne led the $15.4 million Design sale. Claude Lalanne’s unique Structure végétale aux papillons, souris et oiseaux chandelier (2000) fetched $1,865,000, while her L’Enlèvement d’Europe (1990) sold for $1,134,000. Works by François-Xavier Lalanne also performed strongly, with Le Métaphore (Canard-Bateau) (ca. 2002) soaring to $667,800—five times its high estimate—and Rhinocéros Bleu (1981) achieving $327,600, well above its low estimate of $70,000. Animal-inspired design by other design masters drew significant interest as well, with Jean Royère’s Éléphanteau armchairs realizing $743,400. Notably, demand surged for Alberto and Diego Giacometti’s sculptural and lighting designs across Christie’s sales, with aggregate results finishing 147 percent above the combined pre-sale low estimates.
Claude Lalanne’s Unique ‘Structure végétale aux papillons, souris et oiseaux’ Chandelier (2000) sold for $1,865,000. Christie’s
Vintage design has become a market of its own over the past decade, confirms Alessandra di Castro, a renowned antiques dealer and the fourth generation of her family’s historic business based in Piazza di Spagna. Over time, she has progressively expanded her offering into broader categories to meet the evolving tastes of a more diverse and constantly shifting collector base. Di Castro pointed out that demand is especially strong when it comes to prominent names, particularly among the many foreign buyers who, encouraged by the flat tax, are purchasing homes in Italy. “They furnish them with Italian taste and aesthetics—those are very interesting clients,” she explained, noting how quickly international buyers absorb the beauty around them and want to live surrounded by it, much like travelers during the era of the Grand Tour.
“Even decorative art and design have become a global market—much more conscious and diverse than in the past,” she said, noting how it’s no longer just architects searching for the perfect piece. Auction houses have opened dedicated departments, and people now come with very specific requests—asking, for instance, whether they have or can source a particular piece by Scarpa.
“Personally, I always buy unique pieces, because I view them through my own lens—as a kind of continuity with the periods I’ve always focused on, particularly the 18th and 19th Centuries,” Di Castro explained. “But with my particular approach to research and my eye for unusual objects, I really look at everything.” Still, the expert dealer admits it’s somewhat disheartening that certain categories—like sublime examples of 18th- and 19th-century cabinetmaking—are now valued far less than when she began her career, even though they remain extraordinary works.
The market for big Italian design names like Carlo Scarpa or Ettore Sottsass remains strong, even in the international market. In December 2023, a rare Pennellate glass vase by Scarpa fetched $107,100 at Wright Auction House—starting from just $24,000 after being acquired for $3.99 in a thrift shop. The Italian architect’s latest record was set just this March for a special-order display cabinet that fetched $489,868 at Piasa. The most recent record for Memphis visionary Ettore Sottsass was set in 2018 at Phillips in London, where his iconic undulating mirror sculpture fetched $430,221. Since then, his furniture and ceramics have consistently crossed into mid- to upper-five-figure territory at European post-war and design sales.
Collectible design for new collectors and expanding geographies
According to Jennifer Olshin, partner and founding director at Friedman Benda, the term “collectible design” feels arbitrary—and even reductive—especially now that the categories of art and design increasingly overlap, both in how works are created and how they circulate. “We tend to avoid using the term because it doesn’t reflect how artists and designers think about their work. For them, it’s about creating something that expresses who they are, that pushes beyond what already exists. They don’t frame it as ‘collectible’—it’s just design, in the same way we don’t say ‘collectible art,’ we say art.”
“Ettore Sottsass 1947-1974” at Friedman Benda in 2023. Courtesy Friedman Benda and Ettore Sottsass | Photo: Daniel Kukla
Friedman Benda is a leading gallery at the intersection of contemporary design, craft and art, representing a highly diverse, intergenerational roster of designers and artists from around the world. Many challenge conventional boundaries between disciplines, materials and cultural narratives, often in cross-disciplinary ways. “Our focus is more on the making, the expression, the stories and commentary—the reason the work exists in the first place,” said Olshin. “Every artist on our roster is doing something we haven’t seen before. Together, they form what almost feels like an encyclopedia of what’s happening in design today.”
The gallery opened in New York in 2007 with an inaugural exhibition of legendary Italian designer Ettore Sottsass—his final show before his death. Since then, Friedman Benda has staged numerous exhibitions exploring the many phases of Sottsass’s complex, imaginative career and continues to represent his estate, along with other historically significant names such as Andrea Branzi, Gaetano Pesce, Wendell Castle and Shiro Kuramata. At the same time, the gallery champions emerging and multidisciplinary voices such as Samuel Ross, Misha Kahn, Ebitenyefa Baralaye and Formafantasma. “We’ve built a program that spans three or four generations of designers, artists and architects, many of whom play off each other in fascinating ways,” Olshin noted. “There have even been moments when a collector comes to us as a Sottsass collector and leaves with a work by Misha Kahn—because they sense a shared spirit between the two.”
Misha Kahn’s “Rien à voir” at Friedman Benda, Paris, in June 2025. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Misha Kahn | Photo: Fabrice Gousset
Olshin sees the early generation of design pioneers like Sottsass as having paved the way for younger talents. “They fought the initial battles and made things possible. Now, younger designers are building on those hard-won foundations and pushing things forward in their own way. After 18 years, we’re starting to see generational connections—designers introducing us to other designers, former students becoming peers, friends becoming collaborators. These evolving communities are really what we try to make the gallery about.”
Design itself is not new, nor is its market, Olshin pointed out. There have always been iconic collectors—especially in the U.S.—who’ve played a key role in shaping the broader design landscape. Many are deeply embedded in museum and institutional ecosystems, supporting exhibitions, publications and emerging practices. “These great patrons are integral to the cultural infrastructure,” she said. “By helping bring design into public view—through shows, dialogue and visibility—they create ripple effects that expand awareness and accessibility, shaping how wider audiences engage with design.”
What has changed more recently, however, is the breadth and diversity of the collector base. Interest in unique design pieces has expanded significantly since the pandemic, particularly among younger generations and across new geographies. “It’s not necessarily a new market, but we’re seeing a broadening of interest,” Olshin observed. “There are more players, more people engaging with what we’re doing—and a younger generation is coming to design in a really exciting way. They’re not drawing the same distinctions that once existed. For them, design isn’t separate from broader cultural conversations around art—it’s all part of the same dialogue.”
This new generation of collectors is looking to define their environments in more personal, meaningful ways. “It’s not just about aesthetics—it might be a single detail or object—but about surrounding themselves with stories and significance,” Olshin clarified. That shift has also changed who the buyers are. They’re no longer from a single social stratum or traditional collecting circles. Architects and interior designers now find themselves in closer dialogue with increasingly international, hands-on clients. “They’re interpreting the ethos of their clients—their values, daily lives, habits and aspirations. It’s about translating those stories on a deeper, more integrated level.”
Installation View: FormaFantasma’s “Formation” at Friedman Benda, New York. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Formafantasma. Photo: Izzy Leung
If there’s one common thread among today’s collectors, it’s a desire to live with design—intentionally and fully. “They’re not just acquiring objects to display in a corner; they’re integrating design into their daily lives in meaningful ways,” Olshin said. “It’s about creating environments that reflect how they live, think and feel.”
We’re also seeing notable geographic shifts beyond a handful of major centers. “Even in the U.S., we’re seeing collectors engage with cutting-edge work from regions that didn’t have a strong design presence in the past,” she said. “Whereas before they may have traveled to New York to experience it, now they’re building collections in their own communities.” Museums are starting to reflect this expanded interest as well. Some institutions have long been ahead of the curve, while others are now adapting to meet their audiences’ growing appetite for design. “There are curators who have been championing this for years and others who are now taking cues from their patrons, local communities, or academic circles.”
At the same time, the perspective has become truly global in terms of makers and collectors. “We used to talk about the U.S. market versus international markets, but now the gaze is much broader,” Olshin added. “It’s being driven partly by institutional collecting and design initiatives in places like Australia, the Middle East and Asia.”
“Summer By Design 2025” at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Paris. Photo: Benjamin Baccarani
“The collector base has indeed grown and diversified over the years,” confirmed Cyrelle Herve, director of Carpenters Workshop in Paris, when Observer asked her to speak on the pulse of the market. “We naturally work with contemporary art collectors. We also engage with enthusiasts of vintage design and even more classical pieces. We particularly enjoy seeing our artists’ works interact with other styles, creating a sense of harmony and aesthetic balance.”
Founded in 2006 in a former carpenter’s workshop in London’s Chelsea, the gallery has since expanded globally, with locations in London (Mayfair), Paris (Le Marais), New York and Los Angeles. With a research-driven curatorial approach that remains attuned to both emerging talent and evolving trends in limited-edition functional sculpture and collectible design, the gallery now boasts a prestigious roster of artists, including Maarten Baas, Wendell Castle, Ingrid Donat, Studio Drift, Rick Owens and Antonio de Cotiis, among others.
Since the gallery’s founding, the design-art segment has undergone a remarkable transformation, Hervé reflects. “Just 15 to 20 years ago, it was still considered a niche market. Today, it holds a prominent place on the international art scene, and its market has evolved rapidly.” A visit to Design Miami or Art Basel’s Paris fair makes this shift palpable: the growing hybridization between art and design has fueled fluid collaborations across disciplines, resulting in exclusive, editioned works that blur the line between functional object and collectible sculpture.
According to Hervé, there’s a growing appetite for works that merge craftsmanship with a strong conceptual or material narrative. “Limited-edition design has moved from a niche interest to a core category in contemporary collections,” she said, noting how the gallery has recently seen a broadening audience—from seasoned contemporary art collectors to new generations drawn to tactile materials, storytelling and the individuality of each piece. “The act of collecting is no longer driven solely by function or decoration, but by a desire for meaningful, enduring works with cultural or sculptural depth. Buyers are more informed now—often researching materials, processes and the artist’s intent before purchasing.” At the same time, Carpenters Workshop is seeing increased demand for commissioned and site-specific pieces. Clients today prioritize sustainability, provenance and innovation as much as aesthetics.
Carpenters Workshop Gallery Paris showcases historic and contemporary works united by aesthetic associations. Photo: Benjamin Baccarani
Regarding trends, Hervé has seen a renewed interest in Brutalism and materiality, alongside a consistent appetite for statement pieces by established names such as Ingrid Donat, Vincenzo De Cotiis and Wendell Castle. Organic design is also on the rise, with artists like Najla El Zein and Wonmin Park gaining traction. At the same time, designers blending technology and form—such as Studio Drift and Random International—are increasingly in demand.
Asked about what she hopes to see next, Hervé is clear: “I would like the next trend to focus on narrative and sociopolitical engagement—pieces that address the environment, identity, gender, memory or decolonization.” She confirmed that the market in Paris—and more broadly in France—has grown significantly in recent years. “We work closely with many interior architects, who play a key role in promoting design art.” While the market remains sensitive to political and geopolitical shifts, which can introduce unpredictability, she notes that the market has been consistently dynamic and expansive in the United States, both on the B2B and B2C fronts. Still, she added, the French approach tends to be more measured and reflective. “More broadly, across all our markets, collecting is often guided by an intellectual process—an interest in the history of forms, the artist’s gesture and the meaning embedded in each piece. Our role goes far beyond simply presenting the work; we’re here to accompany, inform and at times, help educate the collector’s eye.”
The market for design is strongest in Europe. Artnet
According to 2024 data from the Artnet Intelligence Report published in March, sales in the decorative-art category—which in their analysis includes both design objects and furniture but also jewelry, watches and other collectibles—dropped nearly 42 percent year on year, netting $3.3 billion, the lowest total in a decade. In terms of geographical distribution, the market for the category at auction is much stronger in Europe ($1.3 billion in sales) and Asia ($1 billion), while North America maintains a third position for decorative art, generating just over $898 million.
The rise of fairs dedicated to Design
Meanwhile, new fairs are focusing on meeting the growing demand for collectible design. While Design Miami canceled its Basel edition, it has swiftly cemented its presence in Paris, becoming one of the most highly attended events during Art Basel Paris week. Its Miami Beach flagship returns for its 21st edition this December, curated by Glenn Adamson, and for the first time, Design Miami is also pushing into Asia with a curated exhibition in Seoul, timed to coincide with the city’s art week and tapping into the region’s booming market. Titled “Illuminated: A Spotlight on Korean Design,” the show (which is part of Design Miami’s new In Situ series) will be curated by Hyeyoung Cho, chairperson of the Korea Association of Art & Design, in collaboration with the Seoul Design Foundation. It will feature over 170 works—from furniture to lighting to objets d’art—exploring the convergence of traditional Korean craftsmanship and contemporary innovation.
This September, The Armory Show will debut a new design-focused section, Function, that explores how artists blur the lines between art and design. Beyond the curatorial intent to expand definitions, the initiative is also a strategic play to attract a broader cohort of aesthetically minded collectors. “The more entry points we can offer different types of audiences, the better,” fair director Kyla McMillan told Observer.
That same week, COLLECTIBLE returns to New York for its second edition, expanding its footprint and exhibitor roster after a successful debut at the new WSA 2 building. Long established in Belgium as the only fair devoted exclusively to 21st-century design, COLLECTIBLE’s New York edition could fill a persistent void in the U.S. market for dedicated contemporary design fairs.
The FASHION section at COLLECTIBLE New York in 2024. Photo: Simon Leung
COLLECTIBLE distinguishes itself with a fluid, non-traditional format that prioritizes aesthetic experience over discrete objects with immersive presentations such as Vignette, a section inviting interior designers to stage fully realized environments, creating compelling conversations between contemporary and vintage works. “Vignette will explore the conversation between collectible and interior design,” said interior designer Michael Hila, who curates the section, in a statement. “Each Vignette becomes a curated mise-en-scène—a sort of ‘store window’—where contemporary works are paired with vintage or antique pieces to express a personal design ethos. While the spaces might be small, the ideas will be boundless.” Combining curatorial rigor with a spirit of experimentation, COLLECTIBLE also keeps an eye on the future of design through New Gaarde, a platform dedicated to pioneering emerging studios founded within the past three years.
“What was once a critically engaged field has in recent years gained momentum,” Liv Vaisberg, who founded the fair with Clélie Debehault in 2018, told Observer. “We have seen a marked acceleration: more galleries dedicated to contemporary collectible design, a growing base of committed collectors, increasing institutional interest and deeper media coverage. While the market remains selective in scale, its cultural relevance has expanded significantly—shifting from the margins to a more prominent, discerning place within the broader design landscape.”
COLLECTIBLE recently announced its first-ever Hong Kong edition—the fair is venturing into the Asian market with an event scheduled for December and supported by the Hong Kong Government’s CCIDA. Curated by co-founders Clélie Debehault and Liv Vaisberg, with scenography by Ann Chan (Hero Design), the show will be part of Design Factory, a new international platform presented by Maison&Objet in Hong Kong.
Luxury-branded design holds the furniture market
It’s important to note that the data and analysis above mainly refer to the art and collectible side of the design market, which consists of exclusive collaborations, special editions and artist collaborations that distinguish it from the broader design and furniture industry. However, even when considering the industry as a whole, the global furniture market showed consistent growth in 2024. According to Future Business Insights, it was valued at $568.6 billion and is projected to reach $878.14 billion by 2032, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.65 percent. Asia Pacific led the market in 2024 with a commanding 48.68 percent share, underscoring the region’s manufacturing dominance and rising consumer demand. In the United States, the market is expected to reach $130.24 billion by 2032, driven by strong housing sales and growing demand for innovative, design-forward furniture.
The luxury segment remains a leader. According to Technavio, the Global Luxury Furniture Market is expected to grow by $9.54 billion from 2024 to 2028, driven by the increase in the number of luxury furniture showrooms and a demand for more eco-friendly, high-quality craftsmanship.
The market is holding up across different geographies, according to Marcello Lucchetta, a vice president of sales at Luxury Living Group. “It was certainly not the best year, but it has remained stable thanks to a specific and important factor: the world of branded real estate developments,” he said, referring to branded hotels, such as Bentley Residences, Dolce & Gabbana Residences and the Fendi Condo Residences.
At this year’s Milan Design Week, Dolce & Gabbana unveiled the new Verde Maiolica homeware line, its first-ever collection of bed linens, new Gotham furniture and its latest outdoor collection, Saint Jean, created in collaboration with Luxury Living Group. Dolce & Gabbana
And that segment is especially relevant in certain regions, Lucchetta adds, noting the growing presence of so-called “soft luxury” brands—those that aren’t overly loud—doing exceptionally well, like Fendi, automotive names like Bentley and Bugatti and fashion brands like Armani, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, which continues to show strong interest.
According to Lucchetta, the number of residential and hospitality developments tied to a brand and/or featuring branded interiors is growing, particularly in North America, extending beyond Miami. “Previously, most of the activity was centered in Miami, which now feels somewhat saturated, but the market is expanding across the U.S. and North America more broadly,” he said. “Compared to last year, the numbers are roughly the same, but there’s more uncertainty now, mainly due to tariffs and what could be described as trade wars or customs duty conflicts.” As for retail, it’s a different story—the market is weak for other products. “I think that’s a trend we’re seeing across various sectors, not just luxury.”
François-Xavier Lalanne, Lapin à vent Tortour, 2002; Patinated bronze, 72 ⅜ x 21 ¼ x 98 ⅜ in. (184 x 54 x 250 cm) (ears backward), 72 ⅜ x 21 ¼x 122 in. (184 x 54 x 310 cm) (ears forward). Courtesy of Christie’s
Les Lalanne, one of the most dynamic and inspiring art couples of the 20th Century, earned admiration from Surrealists and celebrities alike. Though often linked to the Surrealist movement, they rejected formal associations, creating a distinct artistic language that blended fine and decorative arts. Their work, largely inspired by naturalistic forms with sophisticated nods to classical literature, has garnered intense market attention in recent years, fetching record-breaking prices at auctions and being featured in exhibitions worldwide.
This October, Christie’s will host a special auction of works by François-Xavier Lalanne (1927-2008) from the collection of his daughter, Dorothée Lalanne. French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus will curate a unique exhibition in conjunction with the sale, offering his fresh perspective on the remarkable collection, on view at Christie’s New York from October 4 to October 10.
Fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus is curating a special exhibition at Christie’s on the occasion of the upcoming auction “François-Xavier Lalanne, Sculpteur | Collection Dorothée Lalanne.” Brian McCormick
Beginning in 1966, Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, known collectively as Les Lalanne, developed artistic practices that were deeply intertwined. Claude’s sculptures often evoke flora, reimagining elements like ginkgo leaves, branches or apples with Renaissance and Baroque influences. François-Xavier, on the other hand, became renowned for his life-size animal sculptures, inspired by his time working as a guard in the Louvre Museum’s Egyptian and Assyrian galleries, where he absorbed the rich symbolism of ancient mythologies and civilizations. As he once remarked, “The animal world offers an infinite repertory of forms connected to a universal symbolism” that “children as well as adults are sensitive to.”
The couple’s surreal take on naturalism appeals across generations, tapping into a timeless desire to reconnect with nature and to integrate natural motifs—something modern man has sought since the onset of industrialization. Les Lalanne’s visionary work anticipates a profound reintegration of the relationship between humans and the natural world.
The upcoming auction at Christie’s will feature seventy lots, marking the auction house’s first solo presentation of François-Xavier Lalanne’s works. This follows a series of record-breaking sales of pieces from Dorothée Lalanne’s collection, including a landmark Sotheby’s auction in November 2021 that brought in €129 million—double the high estimate, making history as the highest-grossing collection sold in France in over a decade. In December of 2022, another record auction at Christie’s, “Sculpting Paradise: The Collection of Marie Lalanne,” featuring works owned by another daughter, Marie, fetched a staggering $77,043,008, with 100 percent of lots sold, 88 percent surpassing high estimates and eighteen works crossing the $1 million mark. Last year, François-Xavier achieved a new auction record at Christie’s with the sale of his Rhinocrétaire I (1964) for $19,418,556.
François-Xavier Lalanne, Tortue Topiaire III, 2000; Copper, stainless steel, 17 ¼ x 48 ⅜ x 29 ½ in. (44 x 123 x 75 cm. Courtesy of Christie’s
“A beloved post-war sculptor, François-Xavier Lalanne continues to amaze us with his joyful, highly refined work,” Alex Heminway, international head of design at Christie’s, said in a statement. “It’s been a thrilling few years for the artist’s market with significant institutional and gallery exhibitions.”
Recently, Kasmin Gallery in New York showcased a curated selection of Les Lalanne’s works, further cementing the couple’s boundless creativity in the American art world. The exhibition primarily featured pieces from the collection of their eldest daughter, Caroline Hamisky Lalanne. The family’s close involvement in their work has contributed to their success, allowing them to maintain a controlled market. At the same time, in Venice, Ben Brown orchestrated a curated exhibition titled “Planète Lalanne,” coinciding with this year’s Biennale. This comprehensive show created a captivating dialogue between the couple’s imaginative artistry and the opulent interiors of Palazzo Rota.
François-Xavier Lalanne, Très Grand Ours, 2009; Patinated bronze, 124 x 58 ¼ x 59 ½ in. (315 x 148 x 151 cm). Courtesy of Christie’s
François-Xavier’s whimsical animal sculptures and furniture, combining extraordinary sculptural talent, craftsmanship and imagination, possess a timeless charm that transcends cultural boundaries. Despite a market slowdown, demand for Les Lalanne pieces remains strong, and we’re likely to see record prices again. Among the highlights of the upcoming sale at Christie’s is one of François-Xavier’s most celebrated works, Le Très Grand Ours (2009), with a high estimate of $3 million, along with Lapin À Vent De Tourtour (2002), with a high estimate of $1.5 million. Both works were previously featured in the major institutional exhibition “Les Lalanne à Trianon” at the Château de Versailles in 2021. Additionally, the auction will include Oiseleur II (2003), which is being offered for the first time.
Seattle Opera’s youth opera project performs Rootabaga Country. Photo: Sunny Martini
The philanthropic legacy of Paul Allen lives on through the foundation established by the Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder in 1988, and now, more than 800 arts and culture nonprofits across Washington, Allen’s home state, are set to receive a total of $10 million in grants from his eponymous foundation.
“From the Olympics to the Palouse, every corner of our state is brimming with diverse and rich cultural activity, and we are incredibly heartened by the extensive reach and continued impact of this program,” said Lara Littlefield, the Paul G. Allen Foundation’s executive director of partnerships and programs, in a statement. Its most recent round of grants ranges from $2,500 to $25,000 and follows $10 million given last year to Washington arts and culture organizations during the pilot edition of the Community Accelerator Grant program, which is funded by the foundation and administered by the Seattle nonprofit ArtsFund.
The grant program was created to aid sectors that saw audiences, workforces and revenues negatively impacted by the pandemic and economic inflation. The most recent round of grantees cited programmatic funding as a top need, followed by funds for salaries and labor, rent, mortgage and facility upgrades, and communications and marketing.
Mariachi Noroeste performs at Icicle Creek Center for the Arts. Photo: Robert Inn/Courtesy Icicle Creek Center for the Arts
This year’s recipients of Community Accelerator Grant funds include the Seattle Opera, Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, Spokane International Film Festival, Ballyhoo Theatre and Indigenous Performance Productions. The various organizations are spread across thirty-seven counties in Washington and represent disciplines like music, cultural heritage, theater and visual arts. Around 70 percent of grantees reported annual budgets of less than $500,000, according to the Paul G. Allen Foundation.
Paul Allen’s wide-ranging philanthropy
Co-founded by Allen and his sister Jodi, the Paul G. Allen Foundation has long invested in arts and culture across the Pacific Northwest with an emphasis on underserved populations and youth initiatives. Allen, who died in 2018, was an avid patron and collector of art—his holdings spanning 500 years sold for more than $1.6 million in 2022 at a Christie’s auction that stands as the largest private collection sale in history. The late billionaire also founded cultural initiatives like the Seattle Art Fair and Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, which recently received thousands of cultural artifacts—including musical instruments, movie props and memorabilia owned by David Bowie and Prince—from Allen’s estate.
Allen, who had an estimated net worth of $20.3 billion at the time of his death, donated more than $2.6 billion to initiatives in the arts, wildlife conservation and medical research during his lifetime. He gave $500 million to the Allen Institute for Brain Science, which he founded in 2003 in Seattle to catalyze brain research, and $125 million to establish the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in 2018. The philanthropist’s other major contributions included separate $100 million gifts to support the fight against Ebola, aiding the Allen Institute for Cell Science and funding the bioscience research initiative Allen Frontiers Group.
Two recently rediscovered Rembrandt paintings will be up for auction at Christie’s in London next month, expected together to fetch between about $6.3 million and $10 million. They have not been seen in public since they were last auctioned off at Christie’s – nearly 200 years ago.
The two portraits depict relatives of Rembrandt, Jan Willemsz van der Pluym and Jaapgen Carels, who were an elderly couple, according to a news release from Christie’s.
The couple portrayed in the works came from a prominent family in Leiden, Netherlands. Their son, Dominicus van der Pluym, married Cornelia van Suytbroeck, the daughter of Rembrandt’s uncle. Dominicus and Corneilia had a son, who is believed to have trained with Rembrandt as an artist.
Two recently rediscovered Rembrandt paintings will be up for auction at Christie’s in London next month, expected to fetch between about $6.3 million and $10 million. They have not been seen in public since they were last auctioned off at Christie’s – nearly 200 years ago.
CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2023
The portraits remained in the family until 1760 and were auctioned off. They circulated through several different private collections until a man named James Murray auctioned them at Christie’s in 1824.
They have remained in a private collection in the U.K. and were “completely unknown to scholars ever since.”
Scholars from the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands recently analyzed the paintings and in June, they will go on tour in New York and Amsterdam before being auctioned during Christie’s Classic Week starting July 1.
Henry Pettifer, international deputy chairman of Old Master Paintings at Christie’s called the re-emergence of the portraits one of the most exciting in the field in recent years. “Painted with a deep sense of humanity, these are amongst the smallest and most intimate portraits that we know by Rembrandt, adding something new to our understanding of him as a portraitist of undisputed genius,” Pettifer said in a statement.
The Dutch painter, whose full name is Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, is known for his realism and portraits, such as “Old Man with a Gold Chain.” He also painted biblical and historical scenes, such as “Bathsheba at Her Bath.”
In 2009, a Christie’s auction of another Rembrandt portrait set a world record: “Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo” sold for a whopping $25.3 million.
Christie’s also helped the Louvre in Paris and the Rijksmuseum acquire two Rembrandt pieces in 2016, calling it “one of the most important private sales in history.”
Paintings and sculptures from the collection of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen were auctioned off for a historic $1.5 billion Wednesday, Christie’s auction house said, with records set for works by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat and Klimt.
Calling it “the biggest sale in auction history,” Christie’s said the collection featured diverse artwork spanning five centuries. The auction house said 60 artworks pulled in a total of $1,506,386,000, “establishing the Allen collection as the most valuable private collection in history.”
This undated photo provided by Christie’s, shows “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire” by Paul Cezanne, an oil on canvas from the Paul G. Allen Collection.
/ AP
Five paintings entered the exclusive club of works of art sold for more than $100 million at auction, the New York auction house said, in a sign that the art market continues to grow despite economic uncertainties related to the war in Ukraine and inflation.
“Never before have more than two paintings exceeded $100 million in a single sale, but tonight, we saw five,” said Max Carter, Christie’s vice chairman of 20th and 21st century art. ‘Four were masterpieces from the fathers of modernism — Cezanne, Seurat, Van Gogh and Gauguin.’ “
The most expensive piece of the evening, Georges Seurat’s 1888 work “Les Poseuses, Ensemble (small version),” a renowned work of pointillism, fetched $149.24 million, including fees, Christie’s said.
The auction house had announced that all the proceeds would be donated to charity, as Allen had requested.
Wednesday’s auction sold 60 of 150 lots, with the rest to be sold on Thursday.
The value of the collection has already surpassed the record for the Macklowe collection, named after a wealthy New York couple, which fetched $922 million at competitor Sotheby’s earlier this spring.
Allen made his fortune with the establishment of the PC operating system with his better-known Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 1975.
He had a net worth of $20.3 billion at the time of his death, according to Forbes.
Allen left Microsoft in 1983, due to health problems and a deteriorating relationship with Gates, who remained in charge of the company until 2000.
He founded a pop culture museum in his hometown of Seattle and owned several sports franchises, including the Seattle Seahawks.
Despite their strained friendship, Allen signed Gates’s “Giving Pledge” campaign and all proceeds from the auction are to be donated to charitable causes.
The sale on Wednesday totaled about $1.5 billion, according to an AFP calculation, and included French painter Paul Cezanne’s “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire” — which fetched $137.8 million, almost double the artist’s auction record.
A work by Vincent Van Gogh, “Orchard with Cypresses,” broke the Dutch artist’s previous record, bringing in $117.2 million.
A painting from Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian period, “Maternity II,” brought $105.7 million.
Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s “Birch Forest” brought in $104.6 million.
The billion mark was surpassed on lot number 32, an Alberto Giacometti sculpture, “Woman of Venice III,” which sold for $25 million.
The auction was a testament to the quality of Allen’s collection, which included a diverse range of works from the German-American painter-sculptor Max Ernst, whose sculpture “The King Playing with the Queen” sold for $24.3 million, to the American Jasper Johns, one of the few living artists featured in the collection, whose lithograph “Small False Start” sold for $55.35 million.
This undated photo provided by Christie’s, shows “Small False Start,” 1960, by Jasper Johns, encaustic, acrylic and paper collage on fiberboard, from the Paul G. Allen Collection.
The “Fortune Pink” diamond, an exceptionally rare giant gemstone, sold for more than $28.5 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday to a private Asian collector.
At 18.18 carats, the gem is the largest pear-shaped “fancy vivid pink” diamond ever sold at auction, Christie’s auction house said.
A Christie’s employee displays a pink diamond called “The Fortune Pink” during a preview at Christie’s, in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022.
Martial Trezzini / AP
The dazzling diamond fetched a price of 24.5 million Swiss francs ($24,615,150), rising to 28,436,500 Swiss francs ($28,570,150) with the buyer’s premium added on.
The bidding, which lasted for a tense four minutes, started at 17 million Swiss francs and was a three-way battle between telephone bidders, with the winner eventually claiming the gem by upping the bid by half a million.
The diamond was exhibited in Geneva then headed to New York, Shanghai, Taiwan and Singapore in October before returning to Switzerland.
It was auctioned in the Magnificent Jewels sale at the Hotel des Bergues, part of Christie’s Luxury Week of sales in Geneva.
The Fortune Pink had been estimated to fetch between $25 million and $35 million.
Max Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewelry department in Geneva, said the stone with a strong, saturated pink color was mined in Brazil more than 15 years ago. He declined to identify its owner, but described the diamond as “a true miracle of nature.”
“We’ve had a huge amount of interest in the stone from all over the world,” Fawcett said in an interview. “It’s a truly incredible diamond.”
The auction comes six months after Christie’s sold “The Rock” — a 228-carat egg-sized white diamond billed as the largest of its kind to go up for auction — for more than $21.75 million, including fees. That was at the low end of the expected range.
Earlier this year, the “De Beers Blue” diamond sold for $57.5 million in Hong Kong, Sothebys auction house said.
The world record for a pink diamond was set in 2017, when a stone known as the CTF Pink Star was sold in Hong Kong for $71.2 million.
In July, miners in Angola unearthed a rare pure pink diamond that is believed to be the largest found in 300 years, according to the Australian site operator. The 170-carat pink diamond — dubbed The Lulo Rose — was discovered at Lulo mine in the country’s diamond-rich northeast and is among the largest pink diamonds ever found.
