Art and classic car auctions top $600 million despite Iran war

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high net worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Global collectors shrugged off the stock market declines and the war in Iran last week to spend more than $600 million on classic cars and fine art, signaling continued strength at the top of the economy.

Last week’s art sales in London topped $550 million, up over 50% from last year, according to Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips auction houses. Some works sold for more than twice their estimates and records were set for several artists, with bids pouring in from 40 countries.

Also last week, at the Amelia Island Concours in Florida, Broad Arrow Auctions hosted the most successful auction ever at Amelia, totaling $111 million. The sale, which included a $15 million 2003 Ferrari Enzo and a $6.7 million 2005 Porsche Carrera GT, followed a strong auction a week earlier by RM Sotheby’s at ModaMiami that reached $74 million.

The strong results in both art and classic cars, stretching from London to Florida, show continued confidence among wealthy consumers even as volatility picks up and oil markets surged on the outbreak of war in the Middle East. Experts say the global turmoil may have even helped demand for rare collectibles, as the wealthy search for safe, long-term stores of value in an increasingly uncertain world.

“It’s surprising, yet not surprising,” said Drew Watson, head of art services at Bank of America. “It’s surprising with all that’s going on geopolitically. But when times are uncertain, and I think we’re in a broader era of uncertainty, people go with the tried and true.”

The strong prices continue a rapid rebound in collectibles markets following two years of declines. In 2023 and 2024, art auction totals fell by 40% from their 2022 peak, despite soaring stock markets and falling interest rates. President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement in April last year only added to the gloom.

By late summer, however, collectibles sprang back to life. The classic car auctions at Monterey and Pebble Beach in August topped $430 million, marking the second-highest total ever. The next month, a Sotheby’s sale in London of the collection of British socialite Pauline Karpidas fetched $135 million, soaring past its estimate. The strength continued in Paris and the big New York sales in November, followed by big crowds at Art Basel Miami in December.

Kenneth Ahn, president of Broad Arrow, said the wealthy today seem to have become inured to the chaotic headlines and market gyrations.

“I don’t know if desensitization is the right word,” Ahn said. “But leading up to this, we’ve had Russia, which has been going on for a while, and the market has been fluctuating. What the market has done is effectively shut out those concerns as noise.”

Ahn said the current era of classic car collectors differ dramatically from those of the past. Previous buyers, mainly baby boomers, were highly sensitive to market swings and economic cycles. He recalled a sale in Monterey in 2019 days after the stock market fell 400 points and bond yields were signaling recession.

“I had a client walk into the auction room and say ‘I just lost 30 million bucks over the last two days of my portfolio. I’m not sure if I need to bid on this car right now,'” he added.

Ahn said today “feels different.” Despite the market volatility and uncertainty, “there’s still this incredible optimism in the car market,” he said.

The reasons vary. Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s lead auctioneer and chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, attributed the market’s strength to the ultra-rare works being offered for sale.

“I think it’s a function of the quality of the material that the market is seeing at the moment,” Barker said. “For savvy collectors, this is such an incredible opportunity to acquire rare-to-market and highly qualitative examples.”

A lack of supply, not demand, has been the main source of weakness in the art market, many say. After Christie’s blockbuster $1.5 billion Paul Allen sale in 2022, which included famed works by Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin, few mega-collections came up for sale in 2023 and 2024.

Last fall, big estates returned. The sale of works from the collection of Leonard Lauder at Sotheby’s included a rare Gustav Klimt that sold for $236 million, making it the second-most expensive work ever sold at auction.

The sales in London last week included celebrated British works from the collection of Joe Lewis, the U.K. billionaire and investor. A self-portrait by Francis Bacon went for $21.5 million, doubling its low estimate. A painting by Leon Kossoff, called “Children’s Swimming Pool, 11 o’clock Saturday Morning, August” sold for $7 million after a bidding war between 10 bidders.

And at Christie’s, a sculpture by Henry Moore, titled “King and Queen” sold for $35.2 million — a record for Moore — after six bidders competed in the auction.

Barker and others said there’s been a “return to quality,” meaning collectors are bidding up the best works by famous artists rather than buying more speculative works by younger, less established artists. The big brand names of the art world — Picasso, Monet, Warhol — were all big drivers of prices last week.

“It’s a perfect moment where there is a greater supply of great material, and there is also an extraordinarily hungry buyer class,” Barker said. “We’re seeing not only the depth of bidding that we’ve not experienced recently, but a much, much deeper depth of quality material.”

Another factor in the renewed strength of collectibles is a new generation of buyers. As the baby boomers slow their buying or sell their collections, Gen Xers, millennials and even some Gen Zers are stepping in. Some are entrepreneurs and tech founders, while others have inherited their wealth as part of the $100 trillion great wealth transfer.

While they’re buying a broader range of collectibles, from sneakers and handbags to Pokémon cards and sports memorabilia, they’re starting to make purchases in the art and classic car markets. And they are adding to the buyer’s pool.

“I do think we’re very much in the middle of a generational transition,” Watson said. “We have seen a lot of the collectors who have driven the postwar and contemporary market over the past couple of decades starting to age out. And we have the rising generational cohort moving in. “

The shift is most dramatic in the classic car market. A market once dominated by 1950s and 1960s sports cars has quickly become eclipsed by supercars of the 1990s and 2000s, favored by the new wave of younger collectors. While the trend started before the pandemic, it has accelerated in the past three years, Ahn said.

“We’ve seen almost a parabolic move in prices for some of the modern hypercars and supercars over the past six months,” Ahn said. “There is a seismic shift that’s happening. It’s the great wealth transfer: We’re seeing it, we’re feeling it. This is a huge emergence of successful entrepreneurs who exited their business in their 30s and 40s, or inherited enormous amounts of capital, and they are passionate about the cars they grew up with.”

Not all collectibles segments are benefitting from the rising spending. While ultra-Contemporary art drove most of the post-pandemic recovery, sales by Contemporary art dealers were stagnant in 2025, according to the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report. Higher costs have also forced some galleries to close, even as buyers flock to auction houses and at fairs for older works by recognized artists.

“On balance, this year’s data points to something more consequential than a return to growth,” said Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel. “It reflects a sector adjusting to new economic realities, refining its models and strengthening its foundations for the long term.”

Yet with stock markets likely to remain volatile, and interest rates potentially falling, the financial backdrop for collectibles remains strong. Add to that the fact that America’s wealthiest 1% have seen their wealth nearly double since 2020, to over $55 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve, and experts say the bull run in the art and classic car markets is likely to continue.

“We’re optimistic that a lot of that more positive sentiment, at least in the art market, will continue,” Watson said.