Last week in Geneva, Christie’s sold a 30.6-carat carved cabochon emerald, known as the Shah Jahan, for $830,000 — eightfold its estimate. London auction house Phillips sold Tiffany’s 42.7-carat Vanderbilt Kashmir sapphire for $3.6 million, threefold its estimate. And Sotheby’s broke records with the successful auction of Napoleon’s diamond brooch, which sold for $4.4 million, or about 29 times its estimate.
Luxury auctions are thriving. Christie’s reports luxury sales are up 29% year-on-year. Consolidated luxury sales at Sotheby’s have grown from $822 million in 2019 (accounting for 14% of total sales) to $2.2 billion last year (now 37% of total sales).
Auction houses are benefiting from an effort to bring in younger bidders, and they’re biting. Josh Pullan, head of global luxury at Sotheby’s, says that a third of its clients buying watches, handbags and spirits are under 40, an increase from previous years as the category performs well among young buyers. At Phillips, Gen Z and millennial clients have grown 56% in the last five years, says worldwide head of jewelry Benoît Repellin. According to figures released by Christie’s, in 2025 so far, 39% of female bidders and buyers have been millennials or Gen Zs, up from 32% in 2024. Among men, 32% were millennials or Gen Zs, compared with 28% the previous year.
Part of this growth is driven by more expansive merchandise, in terms of both category and price, making auction houses more approachable by expanding their physical and digital reach, and by investing in educational content and cultivated collector communities.
The luxury auction category has expanded to include sneakers, sport collectibles like Cristiano Ronaldo’s jerseys (sold by Sotheby’s in Saudi Arabia), wines and spirits, cars, couture pieces (for example, the archival Ralph Russo that Bonhams will offer during Dubai Watch Week), and fashion accessories.
Broadening the spectrum has not only helped to attract a younger cohort from vaster geographies, but has also kept the core art business alive, as younger collectors move more nimbly across categories, according to Pullan.
According to Mario Ortelli, managing director of Ortelli Co., the strength of the luxury category at auction is also tied to the sustained cultural investment of brands such as Cartier, Van Cleef Arpels and Bvlgar. Through their museum exhibitions, these brands have elevated their pieces to ‘art’ status, which is then transferred to those hitting the block.
This view is echoed by independent luxury consultant Susanna Nicoletti, who notes that amid sharp price increases for new luxury goods, consumers have become more discerning — paying closer attention to craftsmanship, heritage and long-term value. This shift is turning many toward auctions, which represents “real luxury” — objects defined by rarity and craftsmanship, unlike “expensive fashion items”, Nicoletti says. At the same time, she notes that auction houses are benefiting from investors seeking “an interesting alternative to liquidity that also signals taste”.
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Bernstein luxury goods analyst Luca Solca also sees broader market dynamics at play. “The very high end of the luxury market is strong overall, with jewelry doing better than other categories,” he says, adding that in today’s tense environment, there may even be a case for “bargain hunting, in a context of significantly higher prices”.
A wide range of price points has also helped to entice younger customers. Jonathan Darracott, Bonhams’s global head of watches, says that the auction house has kept expanding “the range of entry-level price points”, which attracted a younger cohort of bidders more comfortable in buying online. On Sotheby’s buy-now marketplace, launched at the height of the pandemic, a collectable T-shirt by Bella Freud starts at $135 and an Hermès costume bracelet at $420.
Such prices put these centuries-old institutions in direct competition with traditional retailers, but unlike the latter, auction houses have proven far more flexible with payments, even accepting cryptocurrency. Sotheby’s, for instance, held its first international auction in Saudi Arabia in February 2025, accepting Bitcoin and Ether for the entire sale. Building on that momentum, Sotheby’s is launching its inaugural Luxury Week in Abu Dhabi, timed to coincide not only with the Formula One Grand Prix, but also with Abu Dhabi Finance Week and Bitcoin MENA (Middle East and North Africa).
But the auction houses’ most impressive flex has been their investment in building closer relationships with clients. Bonhams launched its own app to streamline bidding. Phillips produces magazine-quality editorial photography for its social channels, alongside educational video series. Christie’s now hosts live auctions on TikTok. And Sotheby’s, whose specialists are encouraged to cultivate their own online followings, has amassed more than seven million social media subscribers. By meeting customers where they already spend time, auction houses have turned casual scrollers — many of whom had never walked into a salesroom and were intimidated by auction houses — into bidders.
“Social media and the rise of online sales have been game changers for us. Younger collectors are incredibly tech-savvy, and these platforms enable us to reach audiences that traditional auction houses typically didn’t access,” says Christie’s global head of jewelry Max Fawcett. “The pandemic accelerated that shift — it pushed us to innovate and build a much stronger online presence.” He notes that the digital push has also coincided with a more youthful cohort, including himself, stepping into senior roles. Unlike luxury brands that have relied on celebrities for growth, auction houses have invested in education. “For Gen Zs, storytelling and provenance are key — they love knowing the journey behind a piece and what makes it unique,” Fawcett adds.
Auction houses are also meeting potential collectors in unexpected places. On the red carpet, for instance, Jennifer Lawrence recently wore a pair of Jar diamond earrings that will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in early December. Earlier in the fall, Sotheby’s held its Rolliefest — the biennial gathering for serious watch collectors launched in 2019 by Geoff Hess, the company’s global head of watches. Combining formal dinners and meet-ups at notable locations, Rolliefest fosters a community rooted in connoisseurship rather than commerce. “If you distil it to its essence, the passion for collecting comes from knowledge. And these live events, like Rolliefest assembling 200 Rolex collectors, or private dinners where clients can try on noble jewels, make the pieces come to life as people share knowledge,” says Pullan.
This investment in live events and storytelling is striking a chord with younger buyers, many of whom feel adrift in a digital world with fewer human interactions. So during these times, in which luxury is under scrutiny, auction houses are proving remarkably responsive to customer expectations and showing flexibility once more. Just as in 1969, when Christie’s organized Geneva’s first jewelry auction simply because a client asked for it; half a century later, the houses are still chasing clients — meeting them wherever they are and inviting them to meet one another.
“We’ve really been committed to the experiential aspect and this idea of building collective communities,” says Pullan. “I think that’s what brings new collectors as well as exciting existing ones. So I think that’s definitely a key thing — you’ll keep seeing new things, new ideas and concepts from us.”
