The past several years in auction house news have been marked by jaw-dropping records, but in 2019, the drama didn’t only happen during the actual auctions. Perhaps the largest piece of news was that Sotheby’s had its final round of auctions as a public company, as the house went private with French-Israeli media magnate Patrick Drahi at the helm.

Below, we have the 10 most expensive pieces of art sold at auction this year. The pieces exclusively sold from Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and almost entirely out of their New York salesrooms. The privatization of Sotheby’s could position it to be better able to compete with Christie’s, which is already privately held.

To read more on Artsy:

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-expensive-works-sold-2019

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