The autumn auction season is underway. Over the next two months, the market moves through a concentrated calendar of sales across New York, London and Paris, culminating with the marquee auctions in New York in November. An early indication of the season arrived in Hong Kong, where Christie’s 20th/21st Century Evening Sale on September 29 achieved a white-glove sale, totaling HK$726.4 million (US$92.6 million), a 28 percent increase year-on-year. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Ancient Scientist (1984) led the auction at HK$77 million (US$9.8 million).
For collectors, the next eight weeks bring more than a succession of evening sales. Photography comes to the foreground in New York in October, London’s auctions coincide with Frieze, Paris follows alongside Art Basel Paris, and November brings the major houses back to New York. Together, the sales will provide a view across categories, price levels and collecting centers as the market enters one of its busiest periods of the year.
Photography Opens October in New York
Photography is among the first major collecting categories to come to auction this month, with Phillips and Sotheby’s holding sales in New York on October 8 and Christie’s presenting the Vicente Wolf Photography Collection later in October. Across the three houses, the sales encompass a broad range of works spanning fashion, documentary and contemporary photography.
Phillips’ Photographs sale brings 240 lots to auction. Among the highest-estimated works is Helmut Newton’s Elsa Peretti as a Bunny, Costume by Halston, New York, at $200,000 to $300,000. Richard Avedon’s Dovima with elephants, Evening dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, August and Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #410 are each estimated at $120,000 to $180,000. Estimates across the sale extend from several thousand dollars into six figures, reflecting the breadth of material represented in the catalogue.
Sotheby’s divides its October offering across two sales. Prints & Photographs Part I, held live on October 8, includes Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Radio City Music Hall (New York City), from his Theaters series, estimated at $200,000 to $300,000; Robert Mapplethorpe’s Man in Polyester Suit, estimated at $150,000 to $250,000; and Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, estimated at $100,000 to $150,000. Photographs Part II, conducted online and closing October 9, extends the offering across twentieth-century and contemporary photography.
Later in the month, Christie’s presents the Vicente Wolf Photography Collection, assembled by the interior designer over nearly five decades. Offered through an online sale and a live auction on October 22, the collection includes works by Man Ray, Lee Miller, Edward Steichen and Dorothea Lange, among others. Together with the Phillips and Sotheby’s auctions earlier in the month, the collection contributes to a concentrated October calendar for photography in New York, with works spanning different periods and categories within the medium.
Taken together, the sales should provide a useful set of current comparables, but photography requires closer reading than headline prices alone allow. Print date, printing history, edition, size, provenance and condition can materially affect value, meaning different impressions of the same image may occupy very different positions in the market. The more revealing results will therefore be not only the highest prices achieved, but how comparable works and established bodies of work perform across the three houses.
London and Frieze Week
The broader Modern and Contemporary market moves into focus the following week as London’s October auctions coincide with Frieze London and Frieze Masters. Christie’s holds its 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale on October 14, led by significant works including Piet Mondrian’s Composition III of 1920. Estimated at £20 million to £30 million, the sale marks the first time the painting has appeared at auction. Wassily Kandinsky’s Das bunte Leben of 1907 is another major work in the sale, with Christie’s expecting the painting to realize in excess of $30 million. One of the most significant works from Kandinsky’s early period, the painting was restituted in 2023 to the heirs of Hedwig Lewenstein-Weyermann following a long-running restitution claim.
The following evening, Sotheby’s holds its Contemporary Evening Auction, while Phillips presents its Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, led by Gerhard Richter’s Mathis of 1983 at an estimate of £6 million to £8 million. The timing of the auctions alongside Frieze brings significant secondary-market material to London during one of the principal weeks in the international art-market calendar. The concentration of fairs, auctions and private sales makes London an important measure of the market as the autumn season develops. Performance against estimate, sell-through and the depth of bidding beyond the leading lots will offer a broader indication of demand than the headline evening-sale totals alone.
Paris and Art Basel Paris
Attention moves to Paris the following week, where Art Basel Paris returns to the Grand Palais for its fifth edition. An invitation-only Avant-Première on October 20 is followed by Preview Days on October 21 and 22 and public days from October 23 to 25. The 2026 edition brings together 211 exhibitors from 41 countries and territories, placing an international gallery program alongside a concentrated week of auctions and private sales.
Christie’s Paris evening sale of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art this year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of its Thinking Italian section. On October 22, the house also presents Durand-Ruel, Generations of Vision, an offering of 62 works that have remained in the family of the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. Led by Claude Monet’s Bord des falaises à Pourville of 1882, estimated at €11 million to €15 million, the collection draws on the legacy of one of the central figures in the history of Impressionism. Durand-Ruel’s sustained support of the movement and its artists played a decisive role in establishing an international market for their work.
The wider auction calendar includes Sotheby’s Modernités and the fifth edition of Surrealism and Its Legacy on October 23, while Phillips holds its Modern & Contemporary Art sale on October 21. Together with Art Basel Paris, the auctions make Paris one of the principal centers of the autumn calendar, bringing primary- and secondary-market activity into close proximity over the course of the week.
New York and the November Sales
The season returns to New York in November, when the major houses hold their flagship Modern and Contemporary evening sales. At the beginning of October, those catalogues are still taking shape, but one of the season’s most significant known consignments has already been announced. On November 18, Sotheby’s will offer the Blaquier-Arrieta Collection, assembled by Carlos Pedro Blaquier and Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier beginning in the 1960s. The twelve-work collection spans Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Fauvism and has been valued at approximately $450 million ahead of the sale.
Among its principal works are Vincent van Gogh’s Châtaigniers en fleurs, painted at Auvers-sur-Oise in 1890, and Paul Cézanne’s Arlequin, with estimates available upon request. Much of the collection has remained in private hands for decades, having been assembled through dealers including Lefevre and Wildenstein. Its longstanding private provenance adds further significance to its appearance at auction this November.
The November picture will become considerably more complete as the major houses announce further consignments through October. For now, the Blaquier-Arrieta Collection establishes one of the season’s principal known offerings and provides an early indication of the caliber of material expected in New York.
The Cost of Buying at Auction
The season also begins with a change to Christie’s buyer’s premium. Effective September 1, the house revised its rates in New York to 28 percent of the hammer price up to and including $2 million, 22 percent on the portion from $2 million to $8 million and 15 percent on the portion above $8 million, with corresponding thresholds in its other major salerooms.
For collectors, the revised structure is relevant when establishing a bidding limit and evaluating the total acquisition cost of a work. Auction estimates exclude buyer’s premium, while the final amount paid by the buyer includes the premium and may also include applicable taxes and other charges. The distinction is equally important when comparing auction prices with private-market opportunities or reviewing published results.
From photography in New York to Frieze Week in London, Art Basel Paris and the November evening auctions, the coming weeks will bring some of the season’s most significant works and collections to market, setting the course for the final months of 2026.
