# Choosing an Auction House for Contemporary Art, Now That the Majors Sell More Watches Than Paintings

> Source: LLB Auction (https://www.llb-auction.com/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/when-auction-houses-sell-more-watches-than-art)
> Author: LLB Auction
> Published: September 11, 2026

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Choosing an auction house for contemporary art used to be a question about reputation and reach. The first half of 2026 turned it into a question about category mix. At Phillips, watches grossed $235m against $224m for Modern and contemporary art, the firm's own speciality, according to The Art Newspaper's reading of the half-year results in September 2026. Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips together took an aggregate $9.4bn with fees over the same six months, and the strength came from trophy estates, watches, jewellery and memorabilia rather than from the contemporary market itself. For a collector buying or consigning a work between €800 and €50,000, that reallocation decides which specialists have time for the lot, where it sits in the calendar, and what the sale costs.

Choosing an auction house for contemporary art therefore starts with three readable things: the share of the calendar the category commands, how intake is vetted, and whether fees are published in full before the sale. This article sets out how to read each of them.

> **Key takeaways:**
> - Watches grossed $235m at Phillips in the first half of 2026 against $224m for Modern and contemporary art, according to The Art Newspaper, 10 September 2026.
> - Christie's luxury sales reached $539m in the same period, up 15 per cent, and now rank second by category at both Christie's and Sotheby's.
> - The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026 by Arts Economics records a global market up 4 per cent to $59.6bn, with Old Masters dealers up 9 per cent and Modern up 11 per cent while contemporary dealers were stagnant.
> - Single-owner estates accounted for 32 per cent of the value of fine art auction sales at the three largest houses in the first half of 2026, according to ArtTactic.
> - Choosing an auction house for contemporary art is now a question of what share of a house's calendar, staff and marketing your category actually commands.

## The half-year in which watches outsold paintings

Phillips reported $507m in auction sales for the first half of 2026, up 60 per cent year on year, with a global sell-through rate of 90 per cent by lot. Martin Wilson, chief executive of Phillips, described three white-glove watch auctions in Geneva, New York and Hong Kong in his letter on the half-year results. Watch sales reached $235m across the period, and ARTnews reported that average lot value rose 55 per cent year on year. Modern and contemporary art, the category on which Phillips built its identity, took $224m.

The crossing matters because Modern and contemporary art is Phillips's own speciality, as The Art Newspaper notes in attributing the gap directly to the slump in prices for twenty-first-century art. When watches outsell paintings at that address, the signal is about where the commercial energy of a generalist business has moved.

The pattern repeats at larger scale. Christie's posted first-half revenue of $4.5bn, with public auction sales up 71 per cent at $3.5bn and a sell-through rate of 91 per cent per lot. Sotheby's reported public auction sales of $3.4bn, up 59 per cent, with total turnover of $4.4bn including a record $826m in private sales. Inside those totals, **luxury**, the trade's term for the combined watches, jewellery, cars, handbags and memorabilia offering, sits second by value at both firms. Christie's luxury sales alone reached $539m, up 15 per cent. Bonnie Brennan, chief executive of Christie's, told The Art Newspaper that luxury has been a gateway for new and younger buyers.

Outside the three, the Texas-based collectables auctioneer Heritage Auctions posted $1.4bn in the first half of 2026, an increase of 47 per cent. Heritage now transacts more in six months than many fine art departments do in a year. For a collector [reading the art market without mistaking price for value](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market), the relevant figure is not the group total but the share of it that belongs to the category being bought or sold.

## What the record results are actually made of

Headline growth of 60 to 71 per cent invites the reading that the contemporary market has recovered. The composition says something narrower. According to ArtTactic, single-owner offerings accounted for 32 per cent of the value of fine art auction sales at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips in the first half of 2026. The S.I. Newhouse collection made $630.8m at Christie's in New York in May, and the Lewis collection made $406.2m in London in June. Jackson Pollock's *Number 7A* (1948) sold for $181.2m from the Newhouse consignment.

Anders Petterson, founder of the London-based art market analysts ArtTactic, put the point plainly to The Art Newspaper: "It's the wealth transfer that everyone is talking about. Most of it's driven by the older Impressionist and Modern markets, it's not the contemporary side."

The annual data agrees. The [Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026](https://www.artbasel.com/stories/art-basel-and-ubs-global-art-market-report-2026-art-market-trends), authored by Dr Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics, records a global market up 4 per cent year on year to an estimated $59.6bn, still below its 2022 peak. Public auction sales rose 9 per cent to $20.7bn on the strength of records at the high end, led by Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914 to 1916) at $236m at Sotheby's. Within the dealer sector, which grew 2 per cent to $34.8bn, Old Masters specialists recorded growth of 9 per cent and Modern specialists 11 per cent, while sales by contemporary art dealers were stagnant. Online sales fell to $9.2bn, their lowest level since 2019 and 15 per cent of total market value.

Read together, the two datasets describe a market whose value is concentrating in estates, in the early and mid-twentieth century, and in categories outside painting altogether. Contemporary work below six figures sits in none of those three streams. The mechanics of an estate sale are set out in [single-owner collection auction: how the premium is built](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/single-owner-collection-sales-what-a-collector-is-really-paying-for), and the distinction matters when choosing an auction house for contemporary art, because a house whose year is made by two estates staffs itself accordingly.

![Auction catalogues and an open editorial spread on a table beside a folded condition report](https://renderings.laboetie.io/media/jDy1sYjXb45hEqBJhl4px/w2560)

## Reading the houses by what they publish

A house's editorial output is a reliable proxy for where its commercial attention sits, because editorial resource follows sale calendars. In September 2026, the Sotheby's articles index led with the evolution of the Cartier Crash, the influences behind Tutti Frutti jewellery, buying guides for the Birkin and the Kelly, and Princess Diana's revenge dress returning to auction. The Bonhams stories page led with a three-city Chanel trio across New York, Paris and London, the third part of a cane collection, and Asia Week New York.

Sylvain Lévy, the Paris-based collector who specialises in Chinese contemporary art, gave The Art Newspaper the sharpest formulation of what that looks like from the outside: "The auction houses have become a kind of luxury eBay."

The demographic data explains the commercial logic. Millennials and Gen Z now account for roughly one third of watch bidders at Sotheby's, and average watch bidder spend rose around 60 per cent year on year to $129,000. At Christie's, 47 per cent of new clients in 2026 were Millennial or Gen Z, and 85 per cent of bids arrived online. Phillips reported that 40 per cent of its buyers this season were new to the firm and that 70 per cent of works sold online. A generalist house chasing generational renewal has a rational reason to weight its calendar toward the categories those buyers already collect. That logic is sound for the business and neutral for the collector, which is why choosing an auction house for contemporary art is better done from the published calendar than from the brand. The division of labour between dealers and salerooms is covered in [primary vs secondary art market: the two markets every collector straddles](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/primary-or-secondary-the-two-markets-every-collector-straddles).

## Fashion and connoisseurship are measured differently

The same period offers a caution that has nothing to do with luxury. In 2022, at the peak of speculative interest in young painters, auction records were set at $5.3m for Avery Singer, $4.5m for Christina Quarles and $3.6m for Flora Yukhnovich. In the first half of 2026, the highest auction price achieved for a work by any of those three artists was $63,737, according to Artprice.

Nothing in that sequence predicts what any of those artists will make next. What it does show is that a market built on rapid consensus can lose that consensus faster than a catalogue can be printed, and that the diligence which protects a collector is the same in every cycle: verified provenance, documented condition, a considered view of the work itself. A house whose intake exists to feed volume has a structural reason not to apply that diligence to a lot below six figures. A house whose intake exists to reject has the opposite incentive.

The distinction is visible in the documents a house produces before a sale. Verified provenance means an ownership history assembled from invoices, exhibition records and correspondence, with the gaps named rather than smoothed over. A condition report means a written assessment of surface, support, previous conservation and framing, signed and dated, published with the lot. An attribution policy means a written statement of what the house will do if a certificate is later withdrawn or a catalogue raisonné entry is revised. None of the three depends on the market being strong, and none of the three is expensive to produce for a house that runs few enough sales to do it properly. All three become difficult at volume, which is the practical reason why the same work can be catalogued in two paragraphs at one house and eight at another. Reading those documents is a more reliable guide than reading the sale totals, as [what a record price actually tells you, and what it hides](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/what-a-record-price-actually-tells-you-and-what-it-hides) sets out.

## Why choosing an auction house for contemporary art is now a category-mix question

Category mix is not an abstraction. It converts into four things a consignor and a buyer can both feel.

**Specialist time.** Cataloguing depth is a function of how many specialists cover your category and how many lots each handles per season. A department running four dedicated sales a year reads a work differently from a department slotting it into a cross-category offering.

**Calendar position.** A contemporary work placed in a themed sale reaches buyers assembled for that subject. The same work in a catch-all sale reaches whoever happens to be registered.

**Marketing weight.** Trophy consignments absorb the marketing budget. Brennan's own observation to The Art Newspaper was that where estimates got pushed, bidding was thinner, and the houses have responded with conservative estimates on the lots they intend to promote.

**Cost.** In September 2026, Bonhams restructured its buyer's fees to 30 per cent on the first £25,000 of hammer, 28 per cent from £25,001 to £500,000, 25 per cent to £1m, 21 per cent to £5m and 14 per cent above £5m. The structure is steepest exactly where mid-market contemporary work trades, the band examined in [buying art under $50,000: the accessible online segment](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/buying-art-under-50000-the-accessible-online-segment).

### Choosing an auction house for contemporary art: a worked cost comparison

Take a work hammering at £20,000. Under a 30 per cent first-tier premium, the buyer's premium is £6,000 and the invoice before shipping and taxes is £26,000. Under a flat 20 per cent premium, the premium is £4,000 and the invoice is £24,000. The difference of £2,000 equals 10 per cent of the hammer price, and it falls entirely on the buyer, which in turn constrains what the buyer can bid and therefore what the consignor nets.

Resale royalties add a second line for European sellers. Under [Directive 2001/84/EC](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32001L0084), the European Union's artist resale right, member states set a minimum sale price that may not exceed €3,000, and the royalty runs at 4 per cent on the portion of the price up to €50,000, 3 per cent to €200,000, 1 per cent to €350,000, 0.5 per cent to €500,000 and 0.25 per cent above, capped at €12,500 in total. On a €12,000 resale of an eligible work, the royalty is €480. The directive makes the royalty payable by the seller and allows member states to shift or share that liability with the art market professional, so the applicable threshold and the paying party both depend on the state where the sale takes place.

| | Generalist tiered structure | Flat specialist structure |
|---|---|---|
| Hammer price | £20,000 | £20,000 |
| Buyer's premium rate on this tier | 30 per cent | 20 per cent |
| Premium paid | £6,000 | £4,000 |
| Buyer's invoice before shipping and taxes | £26,000 | £24,000 |

Premium rates as published by Bonhams in September 2026 and by LLB Auction. Shipping, VAT treatment and any applicable resale royalty are additional in both columns.

## Eight questions that tell you what a house is built for

These questions discriminate between houses in a way that reputation does not, and they turn choosing an auction house for contemporary art into a documented comparison rather than an impression. Ask them before consigning, and read the answers before bidding.

1. **What share of the calendar is your category?** Count the dedicated sales in the category over twelve months, not the total number of sales.
2. **How is intake vetted?** Some houses admit works by admitting the source, a vetted dealer or a known collection. Others assess each object. The second method catches problems the first delegates.
3. **What proportion of submissions is refused?** A house that never declines is describing its volume, not its threshold.
4. **Is the condition report published in full before bidding?** A report available on request, after registration, is a different offer from a report published with the lot.
5. **Are fees disclosed upfront and in full?** Premium, seller's commission, photography, insurance, storage and shipping. Fees assembled at checkout are the recurring complaint in every consignment guide on the subject.
6. **What happens when an attribution is disputed?** The house's written policy matters more than its assurances, because the buyer carries authenticity risk unless the terms say otherwise.
7. **Who is registered to bid in this category?** A sale's audience is built by the house's programme over years, and it does not transfer between categories.
8. **What is the settlement timetable?** Payment terms to the consignor, and the release conditions for the buyer, are stated in the conditions of sale or they are negotiable only in theory.

A house that answers all eight in writing is describing a process. A house that answers three is describing a brand.

## Where a specialist house earns its threshold

LLB Auction is an independent online house dealing only in modern and contemporary art, running its own platform and listing sales as a vetted Artsy partner. The intake refuses roughly 40 per cent of submissions. That number is the product: a threshold only means something if works fail it. Set against the eight questions above, choosing an auction house for contemporary art resolves into what a house publishes and what it refuses.

**Due diligence per lot.** Certificate verification, ownership history and conservation records are assessed on each work before it is accepted, and a three-page professional condition report is published with the lot rather than supplied on request.

**Fees disclosed upfront.** A 20 per cent buyer's premium and a 10 per cent seller's commission, stated before the sale, with no additional charges assembled at settlement.

**Sales built for the work.** Timed online auctions running 7 to 14 days, thematic or seasonal, with a committed calendar of four sales across 2026 and two in 2027, and coordinated worldwide shipping with full post-sale support.

The house does not authenticate on its own authority and does not carry the buyer's authenticity risk, and the condition report is the operative document on condition. Register for the sale calendar at llb-auction.com to see the lots that cleared intake, with their reports attached.

## FAQ: choosing an auction house for contemporary art

### Does the luxury shift mean contemporary art is a weaker market?

It means value is concentrating elsewhere. The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026 records the global market up 4 per cent to $59.6bn, with Old Masters dealers up 9 per cent and Modern up 11 per cent while contemporary dealers were stagnant. Auction strength in the first half of 2026 came substantially from estates, with single-owner sales at 32 per cent of fine art value according to ArtTactic. Contemporary work below six figures competes for attention within that mix, which is why choosing an auction house for contemporary art now rewards specialisation.

### Is choosing an auction house for contemporary art different below €50,000?

Materially, yes. Fee structures are steepest at the bottom tier, as Bonhams' September 2026 restructure at 30 per cent on the first £25,000 of hammer illustrates. Specialist time and marketing budget concentrate on trophy lots. A work in this range benefits from a house whose sales are built around the category, where it sits among comparable lots rather than at the end of a broad catalogue.

### Who pays the artist's resale royalty in the European Union?

Directive 2001/84/EC makes the royalty payable by the seller, while allowing member states to make an art market professional solely or jointly liable. Rates run from 4 per cent on the portion up to €50,000 down to 0.25 per cent above €500,000, capped at €12,500. The minimum sale price triggering the right is set nationally and may not exceed €3,000, so both the threshold and the paying party depend on the jurisdiction of the sale.

### What does a published condition report change for a buyer?

It moves the assessment before the bid rather than after it. A three-page report describing surface, support, previous conservation and framing lets a buyer price condition into a maximum bid. Where a report is available only on request, the buyer either bids without it or delays. The report, not the catalogue description, is the operative document on the state of the work.

### How many dedicated sales make a house a specialist in a category?

There is no formal standard, so count the calendar. A house running four or more dedicated sales a year in one category has built a registered audience for it and staffed a department around it. A house offering the category once a year, or folded into a cross-category sale, is placing works rather than making a market for them.

## Conclusion

The first half of 2026 did not announce the decline of contemporary art. It announced a reallocation: watches at $235m against $224m of Modern and contemporary art at Phillips, $539m of luxury at Christie's, $1.4bn at Heritage Auctions, and a fine art recovery carried by estates and by the early to mid-twentieth century. Those figures will age. The structural fact under them will not, because a business allocates specialists, calendar and marketing to the categories that carry its results. Choosing an auction house for contemporary art therefore starts with the category mix, the intake discipline and the published fee structure, and the eight questions above are answerable in writing before a single bid is placed.

**Also worth reading:**
- [Reading the art market without mistaking price for value](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market)
- [Single-owner collection auction: how the premium is built](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/single-owner-collection-sales-what-a-collector-is-really-paying-for)
- [Buying art under $50,000 and the accessible online segment](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/buying-art-under-50000-the-accessible-online-segment)
- [What a record price actually tells you, and what it hides](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/what-a-record-price-actually-tells-you-and-what-it-hides)
- [The great wealth transfer and what inherited art means for collectors](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/the-great-wealth-transfer-and-what-inherited-art-means-for-collectors)
- [Primary or secondary: the two markets every collector straddles](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/primary-or-secondary-the-two-markets-every-collector-straddles)

**Sources:**
- [From Poussin to Pokémon: why attitudes towards collecting art are shifting](https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/09/10/from-poussin-and-pollock-to-pokemon-and-super-mario-bros-the-market-is-shifting) : The Art Newspaper, Scott Reyburn, 2026
- [Christie's and Sotheby's 2026 half year results: trophy lots and luxury goods fuel rebound](https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/07/15/trophy-lots-and-luxury-goods-fuel-rebound-for-christies-and-sothebys-2026-half-year-results) : The Art Newspaper, Anna Brady, 2026
- [Seven trends shaping the global art market's recalibration](https://www.artbasel.com/stories/art-basel-and-ubs-global-art-market-report-2026-art-market-trends) : Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026 by Arts Economics, Dr Clare McAndrew, 2026
- [Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys launch resale royalty initiative with Bonhams](https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/09/09/swizz-beatz-alicia-keys-bonhams-resale-royalties-artists) : The Art Newspaper, Carlie Porterfield, 2026
- [Phillips first half results 2026: a letter from CEO Martin Wilson](https://www.phillips.com/article/phillips-first-half-results-2026-a-letter-from-ceo-martin-wilson) : Phillips, 2026
- [Phillips posts $507m in first half of 2026 as watch business drives 60 per cent jump](https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/phillips-spring-2026-auction-sales-507-million-watch-market-1234791391/) : ARTnews, 2026
- [Directive 2001/84/EC on the resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work of art](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32001L0084) : EUR-Lex, European Union, 2001
- [Bonhams stories and magazine index](https://www.bonhams.com/stories/) : Bonhams, 2026
- [Sotheby's articles index](https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles) : Sotheby's, 2026
- [Five questions to ask an auction house before consigning a work](https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-5-questions-auction-house-consigning-work) : Artsy, 2024