One of the Art Market's Biggest Secrets, Revealed
4/16/202637 min
What a difference 12 months makes! After years of declining sales in the auction realm, there are finally signs of life. The Artnet Intelligence Report: The Year Ahead 2026 reveals that global auction totals were up 13.3 percent in 2025 versus 2024. The full report, rich with new findings, is now available as a crisp PDF. The price? Free. (We hope that its contents will inspire you to subscribe to Artnet Pro, and to partake of the Artnet Price Database.)
In the report’s cover story, “Dark Mode,” Artnet’s Art Detective columnist, Katya Kazakina, delves into the intriguing and shadowy world of priva...
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First 90 secondsKatya Kazakina· Guest0:00
[gentle music] The secrecy is incredibly attractive. So basically what Christie's is doing, they are reaching out to their top clients they think might be interested in this particular work, and it could be a handful, maybe two handfuls at the most.
Andrew Russeth· Host0:16
[upbeat music] I'm Andrew Russet, and this is "The Art Angle," a podcast by Artnet News. Artnet Pro has just released the latest edition of the Artnet Intelligence Report, the Year Ahead, which has comprehensive statistics about the past year in the auction market, and a wide variety of interviews with important players, and analysis of what has happened and where we could be headed as an art industry. The cover story is called Dark Mode, and it looks at private auctions. I am thrilled to be joined by Artnet's Art Detective columnist, Katya Kazakina. Katya, thank you for coming on the podcast.
Katya Kazakina· Guest1:08
It's such a pleasure to be here.
Andrew Russeth· Host1:10
It's been a punishing few years for the art market. When we have released these reports over the past couple years, we have mostly come on to discuss very bad news, a prolonged contraction. Tell us what the report says this time. Is it more bad news? What happened in the data?
Katya Kazakina· Guest1:28
I'm much more