nouveau / liquid assets / preview / review AUCTION UPDATE
Global live and online wine auction revenues totaled $128 million in 2024’s last quarter, making it the smallest Q4 since 2017 (fig. 3). Annual results equally lag performances of the previous six years: 2024’s year-end result of $411 million sits 13% behind revenues in 2023, and a much further cry from fine wine’s peak auction year of 2021 (down 36% from $640 million). Numbers aside, Charles Antin, global head of wine for US-based auction giant Zachys, maintains a positive outlook: “While we always like to remind people that the wine market isn’t a monolith, generally speaking the market has steadily improved throughout 2024. People have clamored to get their wines into sales this past year, such that we’ve had to hold 51 sales just to accommodate everyone. We’ve observed a steady increase in bidders as more people
3 Quarterly global auction revenues since 2017 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0
2017 Q1 Q2 2018 Q3 2019 Q4
log on to browse, bid, and win fine and rare wines. Both factors signal a growing confidence in the wine auction market”.
Land of opportunity Zachys isn’t the only house to report American success. Pascal Kuzniewski,
4 Wine auction revenues by continent and city in 2024 Asia (-35%) 22%
Asia $90m
21% 1%
0.5% 0.5%
US $244m 16% 10% 15% 1% 2%
0.5% 2%
Europe $77m
3%
1.5% 2% 2%
Europe (+14%)
(%) v 2023
5 Wine auction revenues per house in 2024 versus 2023 (over $5 million) 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
Hong Kong Singapore
Delaware New York
US (-9%)
New Castle, DE Beverly Hills Los Angeles Napa
Boston London
Paris
Zurich Cannes Geneva Beaune
Bordeaux
2024 2023
owner of Cannes-based auction house Besch, tells me, “Results of our December sale were better [than the summer], and we were pleasantly surprised by the number of American bidders.” This is perhaps no surprise when examining results split by continent, and city. The US represented a 59% share of the global wine auction market in 2024, with sales totaling $244 million (fig. 4). And while down 9% on the previous year’s results, the continent appears to have suffered from wine’s downturn to a lesser effect than Asia. Combined results of sales in Hong Kong and Singapore last year achieved $90 million, split in the vast majority between international giants Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Acker Merrall & Condit. European results demonstrate a surprising upturn, with annual revenues of $77 million, a figure 14% above 2023 levels. A return to form for auctions in London and Paris appears largely responsible for this, the lead drivers being sales from single owners such as Pierre Chen (“The Epicurean’s Atlas”), and the collection of “Doctor S.”
Pecking order persistence America’s dominance is further proven through revenues by individual auction houses. Acker Merrall & Condit maintains its position as the number- one auction outfit in the world, with revenues in 2024 of $120 million, just 3% below results of 2023 (fig. 5). Despite a larger dip versus last year (of 23%), Sotheby’s remains in second place, achieving hammer sales of $74 million. The only changing of the guard within global auctions’ top five
38 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
$ million
$ million
Acker Merrall & Condit
Sotheby’s
Hart Davis
Hart Zachys Christie’s Heritage Bonhams Steinfels Baghera Besch
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