The platform Catawiki closes 2025 with an online auction that spans five centuries of images, intertwining ancient and contemporary in a single collecting narrative.
How is Catawiki’s end-of-year auction structured?
Until December 22, the platform offers one of its most complex and narrative online sales, with over 200 works covering different eras, languages, and sensibilities. The auction builds a path from ancient painting to the most recent research, including historical photography and emerging practices, to provide a broad map of current collecting trends.
The catalog is structured into five sections, designed to reach different audiences and multiple levels of market access. Additionally, the organization by thematic nuclei allows collectors to navigate more clearly between the different historical periods and artistic languages presented.
What does the Classic & Modern section offer?
The first chapter, dedicated to Classic & Modern, covers a time span from Mannerism to the early decades of the twentieth century. The catalog features works from European schools, alongside central figures of Italian art such as Giuseppe De Nittis, Giovanni Fattori, and Pellizza da Volpedo. There are also paintings from the Flemish, French, and German areas.
This section is particularly aimed at collectors and enthusiasts seeking historically established works, often with the highest valuations in the entire catalog. However, the structure of the sale also aims to offer a comparison between schools and traditions, highlighting affinities and divergences between different geographical contexts.
How does the tone change in the Post-War & Contemporary section?
The transition to the Post-War & Contemporary section introduces a clear change of pace and language. Here the catalog narrates the evolution of art from the mid-twentieth century to the most current research, including leading figures of the post-war period in Italy and internationally.
Among the names stand out Giorgio de Chirico, Mario Schifano, Piero Dorazio, and Turi Simeti, alongside international presences and incursions into the most recent contemporary. In this section, figuration, abstraction, conceptual experimentation, and references to pop culture coexist, offering a nuanced and non-hierarchical view of the different orientations.
Why is the chapter dedicated to Prints & Multiples central?
A prominent role is reserved for the Prints & Multiples section, which addresses the theme of reproducibility not as a reduction of value, but as a tool for spreading the artistic idea. Here you find graphics and multiples from the twentieth century, with particular attention to design quality and consistency with the artists’ research.
The catalog includes works by Michelangelo, Pistoletto, again Mario Schifano, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, David Hockney, and Christo, with estimates generally lower than unique works. Moreover, this part of the sale targets informed but accessible collecting, interested in building coherent nuclei of author graphics.
What role does photography play in the catalog?
The Photography section brings together some of the most important authors of the post-war period, confirming the role of photographic images as an autonomous language. Among the artists in the catalog are Henri Cartier-Bresson, Willy Ronis, Mario Giacomelli, Franco Fontana, as well as Michele Zaza, Jan Saudek, and Michael Kenna.
Here photography is understood as a critical space capable of oscillating between document and aesthetic construction, memory and vision. That said, the presence of authors from different generations and geographical areas allows for reading the recent history of the medium through contrasts and continuities, compared to the more traditional practices of painting and sculpture.
What distinguishes the Direct from the Artist section?
The sale concludes with Direct from the Artist, a section that gathers works coming directly from the artists’ studios, without further mediation. These are mostly paintings and recent works by contemporary and emerging authors, presented in a direct relationship between creative gesture and market.
This part of the catalog reinforces the idea of the auction as a place of discovery, where the public can approach ongoing research without excessive filters. Moreover, the immediate contact with the youngest practices broadens the spectrum of potential buyers, from enthusiasts making their first acquisitions to already structured collectors looking for new names.
What are the estimate ranges and who is the Catawiki auction aimed at?
The overall estimates range approximately between €800 and €80,000, outlining a fluid territory where high-profile historical works and more accessible proposals coexist. Overall, the end-of-year auction presented by Catawiki does not rigidly separate ancient and contemporary, but considers them chapters of the same visual narrative.
The event is aimed at different audiences, from expert collectors to new enthusiasts, confirming the platform’s role as a hub between accessibility, quality, and the narrative of current collecting.
For further details on the functioning of online sales and market dynamics, it is possible to compare the general framework with the analyses proposed by Art Basel and with the statistics published annually by TEFAF Art Market Report.
As expert in digital marketing, Amelia began working in the fintech sector in 2014 after writing her thesis on Bitcoin technology. Previously author for several international crypto-related magazines and CMO at Eidoo. She is now the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cryptonomist and Econique.
She is also a marketing teacher at Digital Coach in Milan and she published a book about NFTs for the Italian publishing house Mondadori, while she is also helping artists and company to entering in the sector. As advisor, Amelia is also involved in metaverse-related project such as The Nemesis and OVER.
