COLLECTOR'S GUIDE TO 2025 AUCTIONS

While Christie's 2022 sale Visionary: G. Paul Allen Collection, which made $1.6 billion, still reigns supreme as the most lucrative single-owner auction of all time, 2024 had exciting moments of its own.

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Ed Ruscha (b. 1937), Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn In Half, 1964. Oil on canvas, 65 x 121½ in., signed, titled and dated on the stretcher: "Standard Station, 10¢ Western Being Torn In Halfp 1964 Edward J. Ruscha. Image courtesy Christie's Images Ltd. SOLD: $68.26 million

As was true in that record-smashing sale, where George Seurat's Les Poseuses, Ensemble was the priciest piece at $149 million, and Andrew Wyeth's Day Dream was the only American work to land among the top 10 when it sold for just over $23 million, European masters continue to dominate fine art auctions around the world.

One of the most notable examples from 2024 took place during another Christie's auction in November. Held in New York, René Magritte's L'empire des lumière led the sale when it achieved just over $121 million; whereas in the American category, Ed Ruscha's Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half from 1964 was the star, selling for $68.26 million.