Jussi Pylkkanen, global president of Christie's, takes bids Pablo Picasso's Les femmes d'Alger (Version O) at Christie's on May 11, 2015 in New York City. Courtesy of Andrew Burton/Getty Images.
Jussi Pylkkanen, global president of Christie's, takes bids Pablo Picasso's Les femmes d'Alger (Version O) at Christie's on May 11, 2015 in New York City. Courtesy of Andrew Burton/Getty Images.

Each month, the artnet Price Database tracks the most popular artists at auction, record-breaking works, and trends on what and how to collect. From Pablo Picasso’s enduring appeal to auction results that matter, we find what people are searching for, and why.

Read on for five findings, including the top three selling artists at auction, that will surprise you from the Price Database for the month of June.

Henri Matisse, Odalisque sur La Terrasse (by Jacques Villon) (1922). Est. 600,000–800,000 JPY
Sale No. 160714: Modern & Contemporary Art. July 14, 2016. Courtesy of Mallet Japan.

Pablo Picasso continues to dominate as the most popular artist at auction in June, with 478 works offered at 78 auction houses worldwide. The modern master has held this title since April 1, 2016.

Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure: Festival, from Christie’s New York’s Defining British Art Evening Sale on June 30, sold for a record-breaking $32,766,732 and is now the highest-selling work by the artist to date.


Sotheby’s London came in on top with the highest sale total in June. They offered 111,548 lots with a sell-through rate of 70.49% for an impressive $297,266,373 in sales.

This past month, Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Zhang Daqian were the three top-selling artists at auction, bringing in $73,770,799, $68,700,433, and $60,453,237, respectively.

The results are in! Mallet Japan’s auction from July 14 closed with a 73% sell thru rate. See the results for works by Robert Rauschenberg, Yayoi Kusama, and Jim Dine, and more on the Price Database.

The artnet Price Database offers the most comprehensive archive of auction results in the world, comprising over 10 million records dating back to 1985. Learn more about the database here.