BOSTON, MASS.- Invaluable’s price archives show total hammer for the auction houses included in the sample set equaled more than $1.7 billion in 2016. Based on the new trend analysis, this same subset of auction houses will eclipse $1.96 billion in total hammer in 2017.

Invaluable CEO Rob Weisberg said, “The trendline supports what we are seeing on the ground, and demonstrates that the total hammer for our community of auction house partners is steadily growing. While taking into consideration the seasonality of the business, our data shows that the auction market hit a low point in July of 2015, but has been working its way back toward positive territory and sustained growth throughout 2016.”

“Based on a sample set that’s statistically significant and representative of the industry at large, we believe the auction industry will reach positive growth in the spring and remain there through a strong December finish. In fact, we project that the industry will swing 15 percent positive year-over-year in 2017,” said Weisberg.

Weisberg believes several factors will contribute to the rebound: the traditional cyclical nature of the art and auction market, and improvements in all three of the world’s largest art markets – including strengthening U.S. and Chinese economies and market stabilization in the U.K. following the Brexit vote.

Weisberg also pointed to continuing growth in the online art market. The 2016 Hiscox Online Art Trade Report estimates the online art market is growing at a rate of approximately 24 percent annually and will hit $9.58 billion by 2020. In 2016, Invaluable’s auction revenue grew 30 percent year-over-year and buyers on the marketplace grew by 14 percent in the same period.

“Some of the instability of the past year and a half appears to be lessening; we saw strong results from the important sales October through January, which gives me a great degree of confidence that the industry is moving in the right direction,” he added.