Billion boom for Sotheby’s, Christie’s

With an Atlantic tailwind from May auctions in New York in which the two biggest auction houses sold more than $2 billion of art, eyes are focused on major sales beginning next week in London that may see prices soar again to dizzying heights. The big winner was Picasso’s Les femmes d’Alger which set the record at $179.4 million at Christie’s for the most expensive artwork ever sold. In three days of sales Christie’s also became the first house to sell more than $1 billion worth of art. “We’ve entered into a phase which I really think is a masterpiece market,” Christie’s Katharine Arnold, who is running the contemporary art evening sale on 30 June, said.