Artwork Market
Maxwell Rabb
François‑Xavier Lalanne, Grand Rhinocrétaire II, 2003. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
One of many core tendencies within the artwork market over latest years has been the rise of design, which encompasses every little thing from sculptural furnishings and studio ceramics to lighting and practical sculpture. Not confined to the margins of the ornamental arts, design is now a fixture of at the moment’s artwork market circuit.
On the public sale homes, demand from collectors continues to rise. In New York’s June design auctions, main homes—Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips—collectively noticed gross sales of $65 million, a 64% leap from the earlier yr. These included the annual tentpole “Design” gross sales, which pulled in $49 million, a brand new excessive. This surge isn’t confined to New York. In Paris, Christie’s design sale in Might hit €14.5 million ($16.94 million), blowing previous pre-sale estimates, with 89% of tons promoting and main items by Diego Giacometti and Jean Royère fetching greater than €1 million ($1.16 million) every.
There is no such thing as a higher proof of the rising curiosity in design than the rise of French artists Claude and François‑Xavier Lalanne, identified collectively as Les Lalannes. Over the previous decade, the pair has gained market momentum for his or her animal-inspired furnishings and design objects. This got here to a head when François‑Xavier’s 1964 sculpture Rhinocrétaire I offered at Christie’s Paris for €18.33 million ($19.4 million) in 2023. Demand for the artists stays robust: François‑Xavier’s Grand Rhinocrétaire II (2003) fetched $16.4 million at Sotheby’s in June, 5 instances greater than its low estimate and accounting for almost 1 / 4 of the complete income that week. This consequence marked the second-highest value for the artist globally and the best value within the U.S. This sale comes off the again of a $59 million sale devoted to François‑Xavier’s works at Christie’s New York final October.
Les Lalannes characterize the very prime finish of a class the place there was no scarcity of landmark outcomes lately.
In 2025 to date, new benchmarks have been set for every little thing from a fish bench and rhinoceros bar to a stunning stained-glass lamp. Right here, we share six design items that set new public sale information in 2025. All listed costs embrace charges.
Frank Lloyd Wright An Essential Double-Pedestal Lamp for the Susan Lawrence Dana Home, Springfield, Illinois, ca. 1904
Offered for: $7.49 million
Estimate: $3 million–$5 million
Sotheby’s
Frank Lloyd Wright, An Essential Double-Pedestal Lamp for the Susan Lawrence Dana Home, Springfield, Illinois, ca. 1904. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
A uncommon lamp from the famed designer and architect Frank Lloyd Wright shattered expectations at Sotheby’s twentieth century night sale in Might, promoting for $7.49 million after sparking an intense 11-minute bidding struggle. The consequence greater than tripled Lloyd Wright’s earlier public sale of $2.9 million for a 1902 ceiling mild from the Francis W. Little Home, which offered in 2023.
The Double Pedestal Lamp was initially designed for the Dana Thomas Home, a sprawling Prairie-style residence in Springfield, Illinois. Accomplished in 1904, the home is certainly one of Wright’s most formidable early commissions and incorporates the biggest intact ensemble of his custom-designed glass and furnishings.
This stained-glass desk lamp glows with iridescent geometry and architectural precision, signatures ofLloyd Wright’s exact method. Solely two identified examples of the piece exist; the opposite stays within the Dana Thomas Home assortment, the place it has been since its acquisition in 1988.
Maria Pergay Eating desk, distinctive piece, particular fee, 2007
Offered for: €419,100 ($490,000)
Estimate: €150,000–€200,000 ($175,400–$233,800)
Sotheby’s
Maria Pergay, Eating desk, distinctive piece, particular fee, 2007. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
This eating desk by French designer Maria Pergay set a brand new public sale report at Sotheby’s “Essential Design” public sale in Might, realizing €419,100 ($490,000). The consequence surpasses Pergay’s earlier excessive of $421,000 set in 2007 for a uncommon one-arm “Banquet” daybed at Phillips.
Commissioned in 2007, this distinctive piece exemplifies Pergay’s fusion of sculptural aesthetics and technical rigor. The desk’s elliptical metal prime is inlaid with copper kinds resting on gilt bronze legs modeled after stylized tree trunks. These naturalistic helps underscore Pergay’s deep engagement with natural motifs, juxtaposed together with her use of commercial supplies.
Pergay created the desk when she was 77, bringing collectively hallmarks of her follow, together with precision-cut stainless-steel, heat copper, and expressive kinds. A pioneer of French design, Pergay championed the usage of stainless-steel resulting from its resilience and accessibility. Her work has lately been the topic of renewed consideration, notably following the 2024 exhibition “Treasured Energy: Maria Pergay Throughout the Many years” at Demisch Danant in New York.
Offered for: $406,400
Estimate: $150,000–$250,000
Phillips
Judy Kensley McKie, “Fish” bench, 1999. Courtesy of Phillips.
A whimsical bronze bench by American designer Judy Kensley McKie offered for $406,400 at Phillips’s design sale in New York this June. The consequence narrowly surpassed the artist’s earlier public sale excessive of $487,500 for Jaguar Bench (1992) at Rago Auctions in 2022.
McKie, a Boston-based furnishings designer, is thought for her designs embedded with plant and animal motifs. Her work is included within the Smithsonian American Artwork Assortment.
Titled “Fish” bench, the work transforms a stylized aquatic type right into a practical seat, its quilted scales, broad tail, and rounded fins merging right into a sculptural silhouette. Forged in bronze—a medium McKie started working with within the Nineteen Eighties—the bench exemplifies her aesthetic of turning animal kinds into practical objects. Like a lot of her work, “Fish” bench started as a drawing—a part of the intuitive course of the artist describes as “letting go a little bit extra and sinking a little bit deeper into what you describe as the underside of the pond.”
Offered for: €285,750 ($334,000)
Estimate: €7,000–€10,000 ($8,100–$11,600)
Sotheby’s
Jean E. Puiforcat, Vase, 8461 mannequin, ca. 1930. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Generally known as some of the vital Artwork Deco silversmiths, Jean E. Puiforcat has seen elevated consideration at public sale within the final yr. Puiforcat shattered expectations at Sotheby’s Paris in Might, hovering to €285,750 ($334,000), a whopping 40 instances its excessive estimate. On the identical sale, the artist’s second public sale report was set when a bunch of flasks from 1930, estimated at €10,000–€15,000 ($11,600–$175,000), offered for €127,000 ($142,900).
Produced in 1930, the mannequin 8461 vase was proven on the 1931 Union des Artistes Modernes present at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris, the place Puiforcat helped outline a brand new design language of austerity and class. On this work, machine-age geometry meets refined supplies. Right here, the cool silver steel is paired with fluted crystal, creating a fragile but sharp architectural silhouette.
The Maharajah of Indore as soon as acquired this mannequin for his modernist palace Manik Bagh, and different well-known collectors embrace Andy Warhol, who was a serious collector of Puiforcat’s silver. When Warhol died, his assortment was offered at Sotheby’s in 1988. That $451,000 sale included a tureen with aventurine ornament by Puiforcat that fetched $55,000.
Louis Cane Paire de ‘Très grands Citronniers, 2024
Offered for: €138,600 ($162,000)
Estimate: €40,000–€60,000 ($46,700–$70,140)
Christie’s
Louis Cane, Paire de ‘Très grands Citronniers,’ 2024. Courtesy of Christie’s.
This pair of patinated bronze lemon timber by French artist Louis Cane offered for €138,600 ($162,000) at Christie’s design sale in Paris. On the identical sale, Cane’s Commode Poule (2025) commanded his second-highest public sale report of €94,500 ($110,000). These outcomes outperformed the artist’s earlier public sale report of €84,010 ($94,543), which was set by SOIL SOIL / MUR (1973) at Artcurial Paris in 2019.
Standing 63 inches tall and signed on their planters, Très grands Citronniers renders the ornamental refinement of the backyard topiary with Cane’s playful, avant-garde sensibility.
Born in 1943 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, Cane emerged as a key determine within the Helps/Surfaces motion of the Nineteen Sixties, identified for its experiments with deconstructed canvases and conceptual approaches to portray. Within the late Nineteen Seventies, the artist shifted towards sculpture and furnishings, merging baroque-inspired figuration with cabinetmaking, and by the Nineteen Nineties, he had returned to bronze, embracing a extra craft-driven follow.
Bae Se Hwa, “Steam 12” bench, 2010. Courtesy of Phillips.
South Korean designer Bae Se Hwa’s flowing walnut bench, Steam 12 bench , offered for $63,500 at Phillips in June, almost doubling its excessive estimate. The earlier report was held by a 2011 model of the bench, which fetched $37,500 at Christie’s New York in December 2017.
Crafted from a whole lot of skinny walnut slats formed via the normal Korean steam-bending method, the 2010 bench transforms stable wooden right into a rippling, nearly liquid type. The work first debuted at Design Miami/ in 2010 and later featured in New York–based mostly gallery R & Firm’s 2019 survey of the artist, Steam 12 exemplifies Bae’s means to mix materials precision with sculptural grace. Accompanying this work is a sequence of equally made furnishings, all showing to ripple with the meticulously positioned wood slats.
Offered for: $60,960
Estimate: $4,000–$6,000
Phillips
Pierre Yovanovitch, “Sweet Pebble” aspect desk, 2021. Courtesy of Phillips.
French designer Pierre Yovanovitch’s “Sweet Pebble” aspect desk catapulted to $60,960 at Phillips in June, 10 instances over its excessive estimate and almost tripling the artist’s prior public sale report of €19,500 ($21,722). The public sale report was beforehand set by Canapé – Piece distinctive (2010) at Plasa in 2019.
Born in 1965, Yovanovitch first gained consideration for his work as an inside designer, which frequently options work by artists together with Claire Tabouret and Alicja Kwade.
The aspect desk is a part of Yovanovitch’s first furnishings assortment, Pierre Yovanovitch’s Mobilier, which debuted in the summertime of 2021. This piece was made in collaboration with ceramicist Armelle Bénoit. With its rounded, asymmetrical type and velvety layers of deep blue and crimson glaze, the desk exudes each playfulness and refinement.
First proven on the Académie de l’Structure in Paris’s Place des Vosges, the work displays Yovanovitch’s sculptural method to interiors—one which has made him a fixture on the Architectural Digest AD100 listing for over a decade.
Michele Oka Doner Distinctive “Burning Bush” candelabrum with snuffer, ca. 1995
Offered for: $58,420
Estimate: $6,000–$8,000
Phillips
Michele Oka Doner, Distinctive “Burning Bush” candelabrum with snuffer, ca. 1995. Courtesy of Phillips.
Michele Oka Doner, as soon as described as “nature’s scribe” by curator Barbara Bloemink, is thought for her organic-inspired sculpture, portray, public installations, and design.
At Phillips in June, her Distinctive “Burning Bush” candelabrum with snuffer lit up the public sale home when it offered for $58,420, greater than seven instances its excessive estimate. The consequence surpassed the $38,296 benchmark set by her Coral Wave Chair (ca. 1993) at Phillips London in 2018.
Solid in bronze with a sprawling design akin to a tangle of windblown branches, the piece capabilities as each a lighting object and an summary sculpture. With its delicately torqued limbs and glowing taper candles, “Burning Bush” feels equal components botanical specimen and sacred relic.
The design object was exhibited on the Cooper Hewitt’s 2003 Nationwide Design Triennial, and was hailed byNew York Instances critic Herbert Muschamp as “essentially the most haunting work within the present.”
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Maxwell Rabb
Maxwell Rabb is Artsy’s Employees Author.
