Antony Gormley: the mid-market engine of a sculpture-led system
Gormley's market outlook: positive, structurally strong
Gormley’s market challenges the assumption that successful contemporary artist markets depend on trophy-level supply or high-volume activity at the lower end, demonstrating instead that liquidity and value can be sustained through a single dominant medium.
This dynamic is underpinned by a deep and well developed middle tier. Between 2018 and 2025, the middle tiers bands, defined as works with hammer prices between $25k and $1m, accounted for 91.7% of total hammer, while the top 5% of works generated 14.1% of total revenue. Works on paper and editions contribute to transaction volume, but do not materially shape the market’s economic centre.
Gormley’s market is therefore broad and liquid, but uneven across categories, operating as a sculpture-led system in which activity and value are sustained by a highly functional mid-market.
Data and market scope
This report analyses publicly available auction data for works by Antony Gormley sold between 2018 and 2025 across major international auction houses. The dataset includes 2,523 global auction results across all mediums, including paintings, works on paper, sculpture, and prints and editions.
A range of structural indicators were analysed to evaluate the underlying mechanics of Antony Gormley’s market, including sell-through rates, supply volatility, price distribution, estimate performance, repeat-sale outcomes, and geographic concentration. Although private transactions play a role in the broader ecosystem, auction data remains the most transparent and consistent measure of pricing behaviour, liquidity, and segment-level demand.
Market snapshot
Sculpture defines Gormley's market, accounting for 97% of total hammer value while comprising roughly half of all lots. Between 2018 and 2025, it achieved a median price of $304.3k and sell-through rate of 95.7%, significantly outperforming works on paper and prints and editions, which posted median prices of $11.7k and $1.3k, respectively.
Sculpture is the defining medium of Gormley’s practice, forming the basis of his institutional presence and market recognition. As such, it attracts the deepest collector base and the most consistent bidding, reinforcing its dominance in both value and liquidity.
At the market level, the market continues to absorb supply efficiently with an average sell-through of 92% across the period. This performance has moderated slightly, declining from near-perfect levels in 2018 to 2019 to 83.9% in 2024, before recovering to 91.4% in 2025. The dip in 2024 reflects a small number of high–profile buy-ins at Christie’s and Sotheby's, including Big Skew, Steep II, Two Seeds, alongside continued softness in works on paper.
Source: Artscapy | Visualisation: Darden Gildea
