Which Country’s Art Market Came Out on Top in 2025?

This article is part of the Artnet Intelligence Report: Year Ahead 2026. Drawing on in-depth analysis of the past year’s market performance, the latest edition offers a data-driven snapshot of the art world today—from recent auction results to the artists shaping the global conversation.

The U.S. remained the largest art market globally, with fine-art auction sales generating $5.4 billion in 2025, up 25.3 percent year over year. President Trump‘s tariffs created volatility in the art trade early on, but tech-fueled stock market gains and the prospect of lower inflation boosted spirits just in time for New York’s marquee November auctions. Nine of the 10 most expensive works of art sold globally at auction in 2025 were traded in the Big Apple between November 17 and 20, earning a combined $709.5 million—roughly 13 percent of the country’s total for the year.

China’s market continued to contract, with auction sales totaling $1.7 billion in 2025, a 10.8 percent decrease year over year. Although the country saw a boom in exports, its property market remains stuck in the doldrums, dampening consumer demand, especially for luxury goods. Over the past two years, some Chinese auction houses have declined to report sales results, presumably because of poor performance. These small firms might not have contributed meaningfully to China’s total sales figures, but their struggles could signal distress in the country’s auction market.

Although still in third place, the U.K. market grew 11.3 percent year over year, notching just under $1.6 billion in sales. Marquee sales in London remain smaller than pre-Brexit, but the $137 million standalone auction at Sotheby’s in September of Surrealist gems from the collection of Pauline Karpidas proved a shot in the arm for the market, realizing the largest-ever total for a single-owner auction in the U.K. capital.

Sales in France rose 23.6 percent, to $937.2 million. Paris’s auction week, coinciding with Art Basel Paris in October, delivered a resounding vote of confidence in the French capital’s ascendant art market. Six sales held by Christie’s and Sotheby’s totaled $212 million—a 30 percent jump from the equivalent sales’ totals in 2024.