#auction-results

#auction-results

The standout performers of the night were the works that were fresh to market. People are really pursuing quality. In a world that remains uncertain, quality is what prevails, and that's really the key ambition for us as we put together sales.

The 2025 sale came in just above its low estimate (all estimates calculated without fees), making $14.4m ($17.2m with fees) from 140 lots with a patchy 67% sell-through rate by lot. This year, by contrast, was a more concise offering, with 67 lots of fine art that landed a healthier sell-through rate of 89% and a hammer total of $15.4m ($19.5m with fees), near the pre-sale high estimate of $16.6m.

It was a white-glove Christmas auction of singer and actor Bing Crosby's personal collection, which made a 100% sell-through rate and $6.7m at Sotheby's in New York last night against an estimate of $3.9m to $6.3m (totals include buyer's premium; estimates do not). Among the most festive lots were the musical arrangements for Crosby's 1954 hit musical film, White Christmas, which flew six times over the low estimate to fetch $19,050.

The night started with a sale of 13 lots from the estate of the late Chicagoan collectors Cindy and Jay Pritzker that surpassed Sotheby's high estimate of $88.5.m to bring in $91.7m ($109.5m with fees). A stellar group of 24 works by Surrealist heavy-hitters from an unnamed collection (marketed as "Exquisite Corpus") followed, generating $81.9m ($98m with fees), squarely within the group's estimate range ($66.7m-$98.9m).

Art collector Rachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon's blue diamond pendant, known as the Mellon Blue, has sold for $25.5 million on Tuesday at Christie's Magnificent Jewels auction, held at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva. The price achieved today is 22 percent less than what the diamond sold for 11 years ago. Adjusted for inflation, it's a drop of nearly 60 percent in value.