After being stable for years, the number of auctions arranged yearly by the top 3 auctions houses started to increase in 2018 and reached its highest level for the decade in 2019.

In 2019 the number of auctions arranged by the Top 3 auction houses increased notably:

This was clearly driven by Sotheby’s efforts to add new auctions, both in 2018 and 2019:

The additional auctions were mostly online, where lots are traded purely online without a final live auction.

Source: Pi-eX 2019 Auction Report