M&A in the art and auction market
Key Takeaways
Christie’s and Sotheby’s continue to dominate, accounting for 58% of the market.
M&A as a strategic lever: Acquisitions offer growth, scale, and access to new geographies or capital, beyond what organic growth alone can achieve.
Private equity involvement in the market remains limited, with UK PE firm Epiris’ recently announced sale of Bonhams to Pemberton Asset Management.
Tailored strategies across players: From global houses to regional firms, M&A approaches vary - CEOs must align deals with their unique business model and growth objectives.
Long-term trends in the art market vs the current state
According to data published in 2025, the global art market remains concentrated, with Christie’s and Sotheby’s accounting for an estimated 58% of global auction turnover (Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report).
Despite this, recent figures reveal a ~12% decline in total art-market sales to US $57.5 billion, with Sotherby’s notably reporting significant losses in 2024, in a historically volatile market.
From a structural perspective on the global market, several other long-term trends stand out:
Digitisation and global reach: Auction houses are increasingly embracing online bidding, livestreamed events, platforms for remote bidders, and expansion into new geographies (Middle East, Asia, online-native bidders).
Emergence of advisory/data services: Collectors are more sophisticated and demand better data, analytics, private-sales channels, and collection-advisory services. Auction houses have responded with acquisitions and internal build-outs.
Emerging markets and capital flows: Wealth growth in regions such as the Middle East, Asia, and the Gulf states has reshaped bidder geography; sovereign wealth funds and ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) are now major players.
The current state of the market reflects the intersection of these longer-term trends with recent headwinds. For example, Sotheby’s reported that losses more than doubled in 2024, while revenues from commissions fell by ~18%.
Meanwhile, large forward-looking deals continue to emerge - such as the $1 billion Sotheby’s investment from UAE sovereign fund ADQ, or UK private equity firm Epiris‘ sale of Bonhams to Pemberton Asset Management.
Christie’s
Founded in 1766, joint-market leader Christie’s was publicly listed in 1973 but returned to private ownership in 1998 when it was acquired by French billionaire François Pinault’s holding company, Artémis.
Since then, it has remained privately held, best known for headline-grabbing sales at the top end of the market. Christie’s has evolved into a diversified art-services business - expanding into private sales, digital platforms, and, more recently, venture investing through Christie’s Ventures.
Christie’s has also undertaken notable M&A activity recently; acquiring Gooding & Company in September 2024, a prominent classic-car auction house, marking a strategic entry into the collector-car market and opening up new opportunities for revenue and cost synergies.
Launched in July 2022, Christie’s Ventures marked the auction house’s first formal move into venture investing - signalling a shift from tradition toward technology-led growth. The fund backs startups at the intersection of art, finance, and technology, targeting areas such as Web3 infrastructure, art-related fintech, and innovations that make art ownership and trading more seamless. According to Christie’s website (as of November 2025), they are now invested in 14 companies - including; LUXUS, Collagia, Proto, ROKBOX, and Artsignal. The arm reflects Christie’s strategy to stay ahead of digital transformation rather than react to it.
Moves like these demonstrate that Christie’s is not only focused on its core art-auction business but is also using M&A to diversify into adjacent luxury categories and broaden its platform.
Sotheby’s
Founded in 1744, Sotheby’s was the first UK auction house to conduct sales in Hong Kong, Russia, India and France, and the first to have a presence in China.
While renowned for marquee sales of major artworks, Sotheby’s has gone public twice in it’s history (1977 and 1988). Before being taken private once again, in an acquisition by Patrick Drahi, the media and telecom entrepreneur in 2019.
Since 2016, the firm has made a series of targeted acquisitions that have expanded its reach and intelligence base. The purchase of Art Agency Partners (2016, $85 million) brought in one of the industry’s most influential advisory teams - providing Sotheby’s with deeper access to major collectors and institutional clients.
That same year, it acquired the Mei Moses Art Index, a benchmark database for tracking art-market performance, enhancing research and pricing transparency. Also illustrating another dimension of tech/data M&A: owning the data layer provides differentiated analytics, collection-strategy insights, and positions the house as a value advisor rather than merely an auctioneer.
Complementary acquisitions such as Thread Genius (AI-driven image recognition, 2018) and Viyet (online design marketplace, 2018) further advanced Sotheby’s digital transformation, strengthening its technological and client-engagement capabilities.
More recently, in October 2024, Sotheby’s secured a landmark ~$1 billion investment from Abu Dhabi’s sovereign-wealth fund ADQ - one of the largest equity infusions in the art industry in years. The deal positions Sotheby’s to reduce debt and broaden its growth agenda, particularly in the Middle East.
Overall, these moves indicate that Sotheby’s views M&A less as a tool for short-term market share and more as a means of long-term ecosystem building - connecting art, luxury, finance, and data under one global platform.
Bonhams
Moving on from the industry leaders, several other firms have adopted differing M&A and ownership strategies.
Founded in 1793 and long established in fine art and antiques, Bonhams underwent a significant ownership shift when it was acquired by UK-based private equity firm Epiris in 2018 - becoming the first major private equity involvement in the UK art and auction market.
Since then, Bonhams has pursued a buy-and-build strategy, acquiring Bukowskis, Skinner and Bruun Rasmussen (both 2022), and Cornette de Saint Cyr (2022).
The holding period exceeded seven years - beyond the typical private-equity window of five to seven years. The extended ownership could have reflected challenges in creating scale or integrating acquisitions effectively.
However, in October 2025, Epiris announced the sale of Bonhams to Pemberton Asset Management, a leading private credit manager backed by Legal & General - the UK’s largest insurance company - effectively ending the only significant private-equity involvement in the market.
Phillips
Phillips offers a regular selection of live and online auctions as well as range of services and advice on all aspects of collecting, including private sales and assistance with appraisals, valuations, and financial planning.
Phillips has had a more complex ownership history. After a 2008 acquisition by investors linked to Mercury Group for $60 million, Phillips remains smaller in scale compared to the giants. From an M&A standpoint, Phillips has not made large public acquisitions recently, suggesting a strategy more focused on niche growth and brand strength than on aggressive expansion.
Freeman’s-Hindman
In January 2025, Philadelphia-based Freeman’s and Chicago-headquartered Hindman merged to form Freeman’s, creating the largest coast-to-coast auction presence in the US. The combination leverages complementary strengths - Freeman’s expertise in single-owner and American art sales, Hindman’s focus on post-war and contemporary works, and both houses’ strong regional networks - to expand offerings across auctions, private sales, appraisals, and advisory services.
The merger allows the new entity to scale more efficiently, enter key markets like New York, and capture greater share of the stable upper-middle market than either could feasibly achieve organically, while also positioning the newly formed house for future international expansion.
Auction Technology Group (ATG)
ATG provides advanced cross-channel commerce software and services. ATG underwent significant transformation following private equity firm TA Associates acquisition from ECI Partners in 2020.
Following the purchase, TA integrated U.S. marketplace Proxibid and took ATG public on the London Stock Exchange in 2021. That same year, ATG acquired LiveAuctioneers (an art and antiques digital marketplace) for $525 million, expanding its North American reach.
TA later sold its stake in ATG for £84.4 million in 2024, and in 2025 ATG continued its expansion by acquiring Chairish (a curated online marketplace for vintage and antique home furnishings and art) - further consolidating its position as a global leader in digital auction technology. Strategically, these moves aimed to build a global digital platform for the auction industry, transcending traditional physical salerooms.
Artlogic + ArtCloud
In mid-2025, Artlogic (UK) and ArtCloud (US) announced a merger to “shape the future of art technology” by combining inventory management, website infrastructure, CRM, payments, and AI tools. The merged entity supports 6,000+ galleries and collectors, 15 million+ artworks, 10,000+ daily users, and 3,000+ websites. This demonstrates that outside traditional auction houses, the art-tech platform space is consolidating - and technology is becoming a horizontal enabler of the market.
Art events M&A
UNTITLED Art (2024): A key satellite fair in Miami Art Week joined South Florida Ventures through a strategic partnership. With the aim of providing capital and operational scale to grow beyond its Miami base while retaining its independent curatorial identity within a lifestyle-events portfolio.
Frieze (2025): The global contemporary art-fair & media brand was recently acquired by Ari Emanuel for around US $200 million. The deal reflects a move to integrate one of the world’s leading art fairs into a broader luxury, entertainment, and live-events ecosystem, leveraging Emanuel’s media background to expand reach and commercial potential.
M&A activity in the global art and auction market remains strong
Despite a fluctuating market, from major houses to regional players and the technology layer, a variety of strategic models are evident.
CEOs considering strategic options today require expert advice to both create and realise value.
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