The art market was more subdued in 2023 than it was the previous year in which all of the top 10 lots auctioned were sold for more than $50 million. This year, four of the pieces that nabbed the top 10 prices went for less than $50 million, with even the top-selling painting commanding a lower bid than the most costly painting in 2022. Last year, Pablo Picasso's 1932 painting "Femme a la Montre" (Woman with a Watch) sold for $139.4 million as part of Sotheby's $400 million sale of works from the
Figures produced by the world’s leading art auctioneers confirm that 2023 was a testing year for the art market, or, as Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti put it when reconciling the minuses with plusses, a “paradoxical” one.