Last week, most auctions from the traditional September Asia Week took place at Christie's and Sotheby's in New York as scheduled.  While earlier in the year, the New York March Asia Week failed to generate the level of revenue it normally does, the latest September New York edition delivered great results, achieving the third best performance of the September Asia Week series over the past 13 years.

1. The results of the September Asia Week show that interest for this category has not slowed down:

The great performance of the September 2020 Asia Week was welcome news in comparison to the March 2020 Asia Week, which was interrupted by the sudden closing of auction rooms, resulting in all Live auctions but one being canceled or postponed. In the end, 7 auctions from the March 2020 Asia Week were converted online and arranged over the following months but the results fell far short from previous years with overall sales reaching less than US$18 million versus over $125 million in March 2019.

This September, the Asia Week showed much better results with total sales reaching about US$120 million, a 45% growth year on year.

2. The discrepancy between the March and the September Asia Week's results seems to confirm buyers' enthusiasm for Live auctions:

Notably most auctions arranged at the September Asia Week were Live auctions - 85% as shown on the graph above on the right -, which generated on average US$10 million per auction.

In comparison, online auctions - 87% of auctions arranged for the March Asia Week in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic as seen on the graph above on the left, generated on average US$1.8 million per auction.

The September 2020 Asia Week's performance thus confirmed the enthusiasm of buyers around the re-opening of auction rooms and seems to prove again that, for some, the experience of Live auctions is not yet fully replicated online.

For further information on historical results, types of auctions and profile of the March and September Asia Week at Christie's and  Sotheby's from 2007 to 2020, please review the following Pi-eX MESO Reports:

Anna Benoliel contributed to this report.