Following a mammoth New York sales season that landed at the low end of expectations, the art-market mood is distinctly flat as a difficult year draws to a close. The heavily-underwritten auctions reflected a nervousness, later realised, that demand would be slow.

Overall, the evening sales total of $1.56bn was up 30 per cent on the disappointing May season, ArtTactic finds, something of a relief to the market given the geopolitical backdrop. But compared with last year’s equivalent sales, the numbers are down 31 per cent and are 20 per cent down on the same season in 2021.

One overriding concern, says Caroline Sayan, president and chief executive of the art advisers Cadell North America, is that “millennials don’t want to buy what their parents are selling”. She cites this season’s prime collection — 31 mostly postwar works from the estate of the Whitney Museum patron Emily Fisher Landau — which crept over their low estimate to make $351.6mn ($406.4mn with fees) at Sotheby’s.