Q1 2026 Auction Recap: The Market Didn’t Break. It Just Got Pickier.
Three cities, four evening sales, one message. The lots that deserved to sell, sold. The rest were quietly withdrawn, bought-in, or sent to private.
The NFT Hangover Isn’t Over. It’s Just Quieter.
The crypto-native art market has not died. It has been absorbed into an older conversation about digital scarcity — and its prices reflect that demotion.
Asian Collectors Aren’t Coming Back. They Already Rebuilt the Market.
The narrative that ‘Asian demand is returning’ misreads the data. The flows never left — they moved channels, time zones, and artist preferences.
The Ultra-Contemporary Boom Cools — But Doesn’t Crash
The red-chip cohort that defined 2021–2023 has entered the messy middle. Prices are normalizing, flippers are tapped out, and the real discovery starts now.
Women Artists at Auction: The Rerate Is Real. The Parity Is Not.
Works by women are outperforming works by men on a like-for-like basis. The headline masks a more interesting and less comfortable dataset underneath.
Estates Are Running the Market. Live with It.
Single-owner estate sales are producing most of the flagship numbers at evening sales — and creating an artificial scarcity that distorts what ‘normal’ looks like.
Private Sales Are Eating the Public Market. Quietly.
The numbers auction houses post don’t include their private sales desks — and those desks are now doing more volume than the rooms they used to feed.
Miami Art Week 2025: The Money Was There. It Just Wasn’t Loud.
The noise was dialed way down. The wires were not. Our post-fair read on what actually sold, who bought, and what the dealer WhatsApp threads really said.
Basel Postmortem: The Fair Has Decided What Decade It’s In
Switzerland looked like a museum. That’s a feature now, not a problem. We unpack the buyer mix, the slow-mover list, and what it signals for June.
The Guarantee Machine: How Auction Houses Became Market Makers
Third-party guarantees have turned evening sales into structured products. That changes how you read hammer prices — and how you should price in risk.