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After a year 2020 marred by the global pandemic, bans on gatherings and containment, 2021 has smiled on the auction house Sotheby’s<\/strong> which recorded the highest sales figures in its history with nearly 7.3 billion dollars.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The London-based auction house, now based in New York, is pleased with this figure, which is “the highest total<\/em>” in its “277-year history<\/em>“. Of this total, auctions totaled $6 billion<\/strong>, including $1.3 billion for private sales, up 71% on 2020 and 26% compared to 2019 \u0e04\u0e32\u0e21\u0e32\u0e01\u0e23\u0e49\u0e32 \u0e23\u0e32\u0e04\u0e32<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to auction house and art market experts, the pandemic has not extinguished the appetite and means of collectors, finding refuge in works of art that rarely lose their value.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Among the iconic auctions of 2021, Sotheby’s totaled $676 million in a single evening sale last November in New York. It was the sale of the Macklowe Collection<\/strong> of art<\/a>.\u00a0At that sale, Alberto Giacometti<\/strong>‘s The Nose<\/strong><\/em>, was purchased for $78.4 million by the founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron, Chinese-American entrepreneur Justin Sun<\/strong>. According to Sotheby’s, in 2021, 46 percent of auctions above $5 million came from Asian collectors.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Auction houses have had to adapt to the pandemic environment by going more digital, which has “dramatically expanded access to an unprecedented number of participants over the past 12 months<\/em>,” notes Sotheby’s. According to the house, 39% of buyers in 2021 represented new profiles.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n NFTs also made a strong entry into the art market in 2021, as seen in the sale of NFT Cryptopunk #7523<\/strong> sold by Sotheby’s for $11.8 million<\/strong><\/a>. Among other records set this year, the house also saw the most expensive sneakers ever sold, a pair of “Nike Air Yeezy 1s<\/em><\/strong>” worn by their inspirer, rapper Kanye West<\/strong>, which fetched $1.8 million at a private sale<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n