The Tamesis
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In mid-March, just ahead of Sotheby’s modern and contemporary evening sale in London, the auction house’s co-head of UK private sales, James francis fox and David Rothschild takes me into a stately backstage tour of its invitation-only sales exhibition, The Apartments. Approximately $40 million worth of art hangs on the walls, including works by David Hockney, George Condo, Gerhard Richter and Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as Rose Uniacke-designed furniture (also for sale) to complete the home scene.
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As Fox and Rothschild told me, about half of the 12 works have already been sold, with just two days remaining. A prominent patch of white paint on one wall, a Warhol dollar sign, has been removed by the new owner. Two hundred of Sotheby’s top collectors received invitations to the show, which included a key in a box.
“We wanted to create a buzz,” said Rothschild, who was later promoted to the global leader of private sales shows. “We want to get big collectors to come see these pieces in person and imagine what they would look like in their homes.”
The show is the latest invitation-only private auction held by Sotheby’s; rival Christie’s has opened two auction houses of its own in recent years. Fox, who has since left Sotheby’s, said the auction house’s private sales were “booming” and viewed such events as “a new way to engage collectors.”
In 2020, Sotheby’s announced that private auction sales reached a record $1.5 billion. While that revenue was undoubtedly boosted by shutdowns during the pandemic, the company said it has since privately stashed away between $1.1 billion and $1.3 billion annually, accounting for about a quarter of its total annual sales.
The Rothschilds are increasingly important in this category. Since moving from New York to London in 2024, he has curated four auctions in London, including the inaugural “Apartment” sale in 2025 (which Rothschild described as “a very successful financial venture”) and a follow-up sale in March this year, with a total value of approximately $340 million. The other two are open to the public. Sotheby’s will host other private exhibitions later this year, including one at the Neue Galerie in Zurich to coincide with Art Basel in June, and another in Paris in October. The latter “will be magnificent,” Rothschild said.
Christie’s has also become increasingly reliant on these secretive deals. According to the auction house, its three most expensive paintings sold in 2025 were sold privately. While Christie’s declined to disclose details of the transactions, a spokesman said the sales for all three items exceeded last year’s top auction result, a 1958 painting by Mark Rothko. No. 31 (yellow stripe)sold for $62.1 million in New York. In 2025, Christie’s private art transactions reached US$1.5 billion, accounting for nearly a quarter of its global sales. Seventeen of the works sold for more than $15 million, up from 13 in 2024. The auction house said 50% of its private sale buyers were new to the channel.
Adrian MeyerChristie’s global head of private sales outlined an idea of the growing popularity of sales channels.
“This increase is related to increased global uncertainty and general market volatility,” he said. art news. “Private sales provide a particularly suitable selling environment in this context as they can provide customers with peace of mind. When you sell privately, you know what you are getting. In contrast, at auction, the final price is uncertain. Security and confidentiality are key elements of the private sales model.”
Rothschild came to a similar conclusion: “In times of uncertainty…sellers value the ability to avoid conservative public estimates and the binary nature of auction results.” He added: “It is important to proceed with caution, but pricing security is the main motivator.”
Fierce conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, a U.S.-led trade war and concerns about a global recession have all taken a toll on the art market, although 2025 saw modest growth thanks to the sale of several trophies last November. But if the world returns to normal tomorrow, will private sales become less important as an important channel?
Meyer isn’t so sure. “We have a deep understanding of who the active buyers are and what they are looking for, and we can organically connect them with sellers.” Rothschild echoed Meyer’s sentiments.
Phillips has also seen a surge in private sales, up 66% last year and doubling the total since 2020. However, the auction house does not hold invitation-only sales shows or closed auctions; all of its shows are open to the public.
Mitty HaydenThe auction house’s private sales chairman told me that the post-pandemic art market, characterized by a “more thoughtful, cautious approach to collecting,” is “very positive toward private sales.”
“It provides an alternative environment to auctions. Collectors and sellers alike value discretion, flexibility and certainty, and that’s what private auctions offer,” she said. “They allow us to meet market needs in a customized and efficient way.”
as art networkstated in its recent report intelligence reportIronically, Christie’s secretive, invitation-only, single-lot private auctions have in the past few years gained the attention of its columnists Kenny Schachter and canvasJeremy Hodgkin. The auction items reportedly include a 1951 painting by Mark Rothko No. 6 (purple, green, red)Van Gogh’s 1888 painting worth $195 million light cavalry About $200 million.
Meanwhile, innovative new platforms like Fair Warning are also hosting their own exclusive, single-lot auctions. Last year, a Warhol portrait of Brigitte Bardot sold for $16.7 million, which may have inspired Sotheby’s to acquire another Warhol portrait of the late actress, which was estimated at $14 million to $18 million at a May auction in New York. (Jussi PilkaninThe former global president of Christie’s and founder of London-based art consultancy Art Pylkkänen told me that “fair warning” prices “certainly encouraged Sotheby’s to quote record estimates for their examples.”)
Earlier this month, the auction upstart hired former Christie’s and Sotheby’s specialist Saara Pritchard as a partner. On Wednesday, it announced a new format, “No Warning,” in which a work is sold for a single purchase price for a short period of time.
Next up, Christie’s hopes to build on the momentum of its triple 20th and 21st century sales in London in March, which brought in $264 million, by holding a private, invitation-only sale at the opening of the Venice Biennale in May. It’s titled “Ghost Pavilion: Venice Revealed.” Located in the Palazzo Cadario, it will display top works by JMW Turner, Edouard Manet and Titian. Contemporary works by Warhol, Louise Bourgeois and Mark Bradford will also be on display.
“It’s going to be dramatic,” Meyer said. “The venue is very striking and this exhibition reflects how we are constantly updating our model and customer experience. The palace itself has a reputation as being haunted, so the themes of the exhibition explore dreams, nightmares, ghosts and death.”
If staging the most spectacular, experience-driven private auction exhibitions was a game of competition, then Christie’s Venice Tour might have the edge over Sotheby’s “The Apartment.” The bar has been set. Watch this space.
Pylkkänen, who sometimes delivers “fair warning” from the pulpit, told me that the new upper-class collectors were wary of auction purchases, which was driving the growth of private auctions. He said this class has formed over the past 15 years as the art market has globalized and is focused on acquiring masterpieces.
“The market has expanded dramatically and become truly global – far beyond our expectations at Sotheby’s and Christie’s,” he explains. Pylkkänen said sales of works valued at about $20 million have become “relatively standard” as private buyers and institutions from Russia, China and the Middle East begin to actively collect important works of museum quality. This shift is driving the market from being “volume-driven” to “increased polarization at the high end of the market,” he added. While such buyers dominated masterpiece auctions in the 2010s, top collectors now “want to reduce the risk” of buying at auction.
Pylkkänen says collectors are increasingly asking advisers which channel they should use to sell: public auction, private auction or through private auction. “Selling has become a more complex and nuanced choice than ever before. Fifteen years ago, it was simple. You put an important painting up for auction or sold it privately to an individual through an agent. Owners of major works are increasingly turning to advisors to decide which channel to use.”
In December, longtime Sotheby’s head of private sales David Schrader, nicknamed “The Dealer” by some, left to form a new secondary market gallery with Pace and Emmanuel Di Donna. After joining the company in 2017, Schrader was credited with changing the way it did business behind the scenes. Rothschild, whom he hired, said Sotheby’s approach after Schrader has been focused on “elevating presentations and client engagement.”
“Having said that, we still need the day-to-day, pure transactional process that David excels at,” he said. “He was focused on selling as many pieces as possible.”
While both Rothschild and Meyer believe private auctions continue to grow and are likely to take an increasing share of their family’s business, neither expects them to replace public auctions.
