French protests failed to deter collectors or disrupt the autumn auction calendar as major houses across Paris brought in nearly €300 million during an intensive October sales series. The results reinforced the city’s status as Europe’s leading art capital, heading a domestic market that reached $4.5 billion last year—marking a 9 percent increase—and accounts for over 50 percent of the European Union’s art market. Art Basel Paris coincided with the sales, drawing international collectors and art enthusiasts to the city.
Phillips kicked off the Parisian auction season on October 21 with a Vente Art Moderne & Contemporain et Design sale that achieved white-glove results across its 48 lots, following five withdrawals, and totaled almost €5 million. Clara Rivollet, head of sale and international specialist of Modern and Contemporary Art in Paris, noted that the house welcomed more than 1,000 guests to its opening reception earlier in the week.
Joan Miró’s 1930 canvas Peinture led the Phillips auction, fetching €503,100 with fees, just shy of its €550,000 high estimate. Consigned from the collection of Marcel Brient, the work dates from the artist’s anti-painting period and is one of only nine 1930 oil paintings recorded in Miró’s catalogue raisonné. Other highlights included Marc Chagall’s Le cheval à la lune at €464,400 and Jean-Paul Riopelle’s Avant le Printemps at €312,500. Asian artists also performed strongly, with Hsiao Chin’s Pintura 5 (1958) selling for €374,100, far surpassing its €50,000 low estimate, and contemporary artist Liu Guofu setting a new personal record with an atmospheric mountain scene fetching €283,800 against a €60,000-80,000 estimate.
Design lots paired with the Phillips sale also exceeded expectations, reflecting broader market strength in collectible design, which rose 63 percent year over year in the first half of 2026 according to ArtTactic. A Line Vautrin Soleil mirror achieved €70,950, a suite of four Jean Royère chairs sold for €67,080, and a pair of ebony-and-green armchairs by Carlo Bugatti brought in €54,180.
The momentum continued on Thursday, October 22, with Sotheby’s evening sale of the legendary Schlumberger Collection. The highly anticipated auction achieved white-glove results, totaling €74.4 million against a €39.3 million low estimate, making it one of the most valuable fine-art sales ever staged by the house in Paris. Over a six-day preview, the collection drew more than 9,000 visitors.
Claude Monet’s monumental Iris dominated the evening, realizing €50 million ($56.2 million) and becoming the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction in France. Following an intense 45-minute bidding war involving more than six bidders, the late masterpiece sold via Jen Hua, Sotheby’s deputy chairman for Asia, on behalf of a regional collector. The work, the largest of 20 Iris paintings produced in Monet’s final decade remaining in private hands, had never been publicly exhibited before. Another Monet masterpiece, Saule pleureur (or L’Arbre de feu), achieved the evening’s second-highest price at €9.7 million.
Symbolist works also drew intense interest, with Gustave Moreau’s intricate gouache Rêve d’Orient soaring to €1.4 million against a €600,000-800,000 estimate, surpassing the artist’s previous record set in 1989. Pierre Bonnard’s La Cueillette des Prunes established another record at €2.5 million, while Camille Claudel’s sculpture La Valse fetched €832,000.
During the day of the sale, Sotheby’s announced the withdrawal of three seminal early paintings by Paul Cézanne, which had been designated trésors nationaux. Backed by the French Ministry of Culture, the works will return to the artist’s hometown to hang in the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence.
Sotheby’s sales continued the following morning, bringing the cumulative total to €137.7 million. František Kupka’s Espace non-descriptif achieved €9 million, setting a new auction record for the artist in France, while Alberto Giacometti’s Tête crâne soared to €8.7 million after attracting eight bidders.
Simultaneously, Christie’s presented the Durand-Ruel Collection in a sale titled Generations of Vision, achieving white-glove results across 27 lots and totaling €41,658,640 near the upper end of its estimate. The offering drew more than 160 international bidders. Monet’s Bord des falaises à Pourville led the house’s evening at €12.8 million, while Alfred Sisley’s Un Verger fetched €3.7 million against a €1.5-1.7 million estimate, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Jeunes filles au bord de la mer reached €5.8 million.
Christie’s subsequent sessions brought an additional €17.9 million from mixed collections, followed by a 20th and 21st Century evening sale that totaled €66.014 million across 88 lots. Jeff Koons’ Ode to Love sold close to its estimate at €3.1 million, and Jean Dubuffet’s bronze Le Commandeur reached €1.2 million.
The auction events concluded with the Thinking Italian segment, celebrating 25 years of the format which moved from London to Paris in 2022. The dedicated Italian offering reached €21 million, driven by buyers from 50 countries. Amedeo Modigliani’s Minoutcha fetched €6,205,000, and Lucio Fontana’s yellow Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio achieved €6,815,000. Overall, the Paris sales demonstrated a cautious market concentrated heavily on strong provenance and established blue-chip names.
