This article is part of the Artnet Intelligence Report Mid-Year Review 2024. Our analysis of the first half of the year’s market trends provides a data-driven overview of the current state of the art world, highlighting auction results and trends, and spotlights the artists and artworks shaping the dialogue.

According to Artnet’s Mid-Year Intelligence Report, the postwar and contemporary sector remained the most lucrative between January and July, generating just over $2 billion in sales in the first half of the year, down 21 percent from the same period in 2023.

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Every category contracted in 2023 and shrank further in 2024. The most pronounced decline in the first half of this year was in the ultra-contemporary category, which fell by 39 percent from the equivalent period last year.  

Many contemporary-art auctions in the spring saw last-minute withdrawals, and works that did sell went for well below previous highs, suggesting that the speculation that previously pushed up prices in the sector has partially evaporated.

Saint Sebastian Tended by Two Angels (1602–09) by Peter Paul Rubens, the highest-priced artist at auction in the European Old Masters category in the first half of 2024. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.

The Old Master category, which is influenced much more by supply than by demand, fell by 38 percent, while Impressionist and Modern art sales dropped by 23 percent. These results reflect the fact that very few masterpieces (which often drive the more historic categories) have come on the block this year.