The two back-to-back sale weeks showed how differently the cities trade. London, during Frieze Week on October 14–15, carried more value with a $370.6M aggregate and remains the higher-priced market, led by international Modern and Contemporary art. Paris, during Art Basel week on October 22–23, made $274.8M on more lots at lower prices, with its strength in European Modernism, Surrealism and Italian Post-war art. Paris also set the season's record: Monet's Iris sold at Sotheby's for $56.1M (€50M), the highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction in France.
Various-owner sales: London and Paris compared
The houses organized their sales differently in each city. In London, Christie's and Phillips each combined Modern and Contemporary art in a single evening sale, while the Sotheby's evening sale focused solely on Contemporary art. In Paris, Christie's again combined the two, but Sotheby's divided its offering by theme: Modernités, which ran from Impressionism to Contemporary art, followed by the themed sale offering solely "Surrealism and its Legacy." Phillips held no Paris evening sale.
Both cities sold more than four in five lots, with London ahead at an 87% sell-through rate by lot. The difference was in price and concentration. London's average sold lot was $2.62M, more than twice Paris's $1.15M. London's top two lots made up a third of the combined evening sale totals, while Paris' top two lots made up just 14%. London's sales also finished further above their combined low estimate, at 1.26x against 1.12x, but Paris had the larger share of lots beating their high estimates, 45% against 39%.
The price bands show the two markets most clearly. London's results rested on a few trophy pictures, while Paris's rested on breadth. London made $88.3M from three lots over $10M; Paris made $10.1M from one. Below $1M the order reversed: Paris sold 82 lots between $100K and $1M for $39.9M, against 43 lots for $23.6M in London.
The artists reflect each city's character. London's leaders were Kandinsky, Mondrian, Richter and Hockney. Paris was led by Fontana ($12.5M across five lots), Kupka ($12.1M), Giacometti ($10.9M) and Miró ($10.3M).
Various-owner sales: London
London's three various-owner evening sales made $228.0M on 100 lots, with 87 sold. Christie's 20th/21st Century sale accounted for $147.4M, 65% of the total. Kandinsky's Das bunte Leben ($41.9M) and Mondrian's Composition III ($33.5M), both at Christie's, made up a third of London's total between them. Richter was the most consistent name, with $23.5M across five lots at all three houses, and Hockney appeared seven times for $13.6M.
Sotheby's Contemporary sale made $60.9M, led by Willem de Kooning's Untitled (1977) at $12.9M, with six lots bought in. Phillips sold every lot for $19.7M, the only various-owner sale in either city to do so, and three young painters set auction records well above estimate.
Various-owner sales: Paris
Paris's three various-owner evening sales made $144.7M on 153 lots, with 126 sold. Christie's 20th/21st Century sale was the broadest of the week, with 80 lots across European Modern and Post-war art, Design and African art. It sold 89% and made $74.0M, led by Fontana's Concetto spaziale, Mezzogiorno in Piazza S. Marco ($7.6M) and Modigliani's Minoutcha ($7.0M). Nearly half of its sold lots beat their high estimates.
Sotheby's Modernités made $43.2M. It bought in 11 of 40 lots, including a Monet, a Basquiat and two Seurats. Kupka's Espace non-descriptif led at $10.1M, and Giacometti's 1934 plaster Tête crâne made $9.7M, 2.2x its high estimate. Surrealism and its Legacy made $27.5M, 0.92x its combined low estimate. Magritte's Morceaux Choisis, with a $5.6M low estimate, was bought in, while Max Ernst's Le Torse ailé made $1.3M, 3.8x its high.
Single-owner sales: London and Paris compared
Demand was steady across the single-owner sales. London bought-in a single lot, and both Paris sales had white glove performances with 100% sell-through by lot. The Paris collections beat their estimates by a wider margin, finishing at 1.72x their combined low estimate against 1.37x for London, with 66% of lots above high estimate against 42%.
London's collection was a larger offering by lot volume. The Peter Simon Collection sold 29 lots for $1M or more, nearly twice as many as the two Paris collections combined, and its top lot made just 16% of the total. In Paris, a single painting carried much of the result: Iris was 67% of the Schlumberger sale.
Single-owner sales: London
The Peter Simon Collection at Christie's made $142.6M on October 14, the highest total for a single-owner collection ever offered at Christie's London. Forty of 41 lots sold, at an average of $3.57M. Bacon's Figure in Movement led within estimate at $22.8M. The largest multiples came from works with thinner market records: Popova's Painterly Architectonic made $10.1M, 4.2x its low estimate, and Portia Zvavahera set an artist record. Established names priced fully were softer. A Picasso still life sold below its low estimate, and Jeff Koons's Baroque Egg with Bow made $2.3M against the $4.1M Simon paid in 2012.
Single-owner sales: Paris
Paris held two single-owner sales on October 22, which together made $130.1M on 50 lots.
Sotheby's sold the Schlumberger Collection for $83.4M, 1.97x its low estimate. Iris drew six bidders over 45 minutes before selling to a private collector in Asia. The rest of the collection was strong too: Monet's La Seine à Vernon, l'arbre made $4.8M, 2.4x its high, and Bonnard's La cueillette des prunes made $2.8M, 3.1x its high.
Christie's sold 27 works from the Durand-Ruel Collection, held by the family of the Impressionists' dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, for $46.7M. Monet's Bord des falaises à Pourville led within estimate at $14.3M. The strongest bidding came further down: Sisley's Un Verger made $4.2M, 2.5x its high, and three works by Gustave Loiseau each made 2.6–3.2x their highs.
Notes:
One lot moved the Paris figures. Iris made 21% of all single-owner value this season. Excluding it, Paris's single-owner total is $74.0M and Schlumberger's average sold lot falls from $3.63M to $1.24M.
Withdrawn Cézannes. Three Cézanne panels were withdrawn from the Schlumberger sale after being refused export certificates, and are headed to the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence.
Sotheby's Modern British & Irish evening sale (London, October 14, $11.8M, 24 of 33 lots sold) is excluded. It is a regional category with a lower price point and no Paris equivalent, and last year Sotheby's held it in November rather than during Frieze Week.
Christie's Paris 20th/21st Century sale mixed fine art with design and African art, including a Kongo nkisi n'kondi at $2.2M. This raised its lot count and lowered its average.
Phillips held no Paris evening sale. Its Paris sale on October 21 was a mixed art and design sale and is excluded.
Restitution. Kandinsky's Das bunte Leben, London's top lot, was returned in 2023 to the heirs of collector Hedwig Lewenstein-Weyermann.
Day and online sales are excluded, including the rest of the Simon and Durand-Ruel collections.
Results are drawn from Artsignal's Market Explorer as of October 26, 2026. Bidder details, withdrawals and export decisions come from auction house press reports. All prices are aggregate (hammer price plus buyer's premium) unless otherwise noted; estimates exclude premium. Prices are shown in USD, converted from pounds sterling or euros at the exchange rate on each sale date. Figures cover the evening sales at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips in London (October 14–15) and Christie's and Sotheby's in Paris (October 22–23), and exclude withdrawn lots and Sotheby's Modern British & Irish sale.