Paris Auction Houses Turn Up the Heat

By Margaret Carrigan · Artnet News · October 22, 2026 · Original article

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There’s some major art on offer at Art Basel Paris—hello, $100 million Modigliani—but what’s in store at the auction houses?

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Paris’s auction scene has been growing rapidly in the last few years and, this week, evening sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s are poised to rake in between €185 million and €266.3 million ($207.9 million and $299.2 million) across five sales in two days. It’s the highest estimate for the sale week to date. (Not included: The $150 million worth of art on the menu at Sotheby’s luxe pop-up dining experience, Chez Sotheby’s.)

Last October, the rival houses brought in a combined $212 million across six auctions—30 percent higher than the equivalent sales in 2024.

On Monday evening, there were lines to get into Christie’s preview. Will that kind of demand carry into the sale room with the city on edge ahead of Saturday’s protests?

Monets Aplenty

Claude Monet, Bord des falaises à Pourville (1882). Courtesy of Christie’s.

New York-based advisor Evan Beard said he’ll be active on several lots. “It’s a good Impressionist and modern week,” he noted.

Where better to sell Impressionist works than in the movement’s birthplace? There’s plenty to go around, with a fun grouping of 85 works from the collection of the heirs of Paul Durand-Ruel, the 19th-century dealer who believed in Impressionism when no one else would. A 27-lot sale filled with quaint waterscapes on Thursday afternoon is led by Claude Monet’s Bord des falaises à Pourville (1882), estimated to bring in $12.67 million–$17.27 million. It’s one of five guaranteed lots in the sale, which could net $33.3 million to $47.6 million. (Another 58 lots from the trove will be offered in a day sale the following afternoon.)

Over at Sotheby’s, there are more Monets, this time from the Schlumberger Collection, 27 lots of which are estimated to fetch between $44.1 million and $60.6 million Thursday evening. A hefty portion of that total is courtesy of Monet’s Iris (1924–25), from his final years at Giverny. The largest work from the artist’s last decade still in private hands, it’s estimated at $24.7 million to $33.7 million—the highest estimate ever set for a painting at auction in France, according to the house.

Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, Mezzogiorno in Piazza S. Marco. Courtesy of Christie’s.

Just a couple hours before the sale, Sotheby’s announced three Paul Cézanne paintings from the collection, estimated to fetch between $1.6 million and $2.3 million all together, were withdrawn because the town of Aix-en-Provence, backed by the French Ministry of Culture, intends to acquire them for the Musée Granet. They had recently been designated as national treasures.

International Appeal

Selling French art in France? Groundbreaking. But there are some surprises this year. Since Christie’s moved its “Thinking Italian” auction from London to Paris in 2022, it’s been “very successful,” said Liberte Nuti, an advisor based between the two cities. The top lot of Christie’s 20th and 21st century sale, which includes “Thinking Italian,” is Lucio Fontana’s 1961 Concetto spaziale, Mezzogiorno in Piazza S. Marco (est. $6.2 million–$8.4 million). In total, the auction is expected to bring in $99.3 million to $142 million across 84 lots.

Sotheby’s 40-lot Modernités sale on Friday could bring in $36.9 million to $53.9 million and is led by Espace non-descriptif (1914–22), an abstract work by Czech artist and Orphism pioneer František Kupka. “It’s a rare jewel; he’s not an easy artist to find,” Nuti said. If it sells within estimate ($6.7 million–$9 million), it will be the second-most expensive work of his ever sold at auction. Sotheby’s London set the record in 2021 with the sale of the 1922 Le Jaillissement II (Tryskání II) for $10.3 million, according to the Artnet Price Database.

František Kupka, Espace non-descriptif,. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Back to the Classics

Sotheby’s Surrealism and Its Legacy sale, also on Friday, has become a cornerstone of the Paris sale week as market demand for Surrealists soars. This year, it’s poised to bring in $29.6 million–$42.7 million across 33 lots. The same similarly sized sale brought in $26.9 million last October. Another René Magritte leads it, this time the 1950 Morceaux Choisis (est. $5.6 million–$7.9 million).

Across the auctions, “it’s interesting how little contemporary art is on offer—and zero emerging contemporary,” Beard said. The most recent work is Wolfgang Tillmans’s Greifbar 53 from 2016 at Sotheby’s Modernités event. (Ok, there is a 2026 Michelangelo Pistoletto mirror work in Christie’s 20th and 21st century sale, but it’s being sold by the artist for charity.) Interesting, but maybe not surprising given the recent flight to quality. “It’s back to the classics,” Beard said. All the more so in a chic town like Paris.

The Bottom Line

Still, as the market grows, and Art Basel continues to draw the art world’s biggest players, that could be changing. Phillips, known for its contemporary offerings, is staking its claim in the city. The house’s outing at 94 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré on Wednesday night boasted works spanning the 20th and 21st centuries; it brought in a total of $5.6 million across 53 lots, 91 percent of which sold. Joan Miró’s 1930 Peinture, from the collection of Marcel Brient, topped the evening at $565,500, including fees. The house also set an auction record for Chinese painter Liu Guofu, whose Cold Mountain 25-6 (2025) sold for $319,000 against a $67,400–$89,900 estimate.

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