8 Design Pieces That Set Auction Records in 2025

One of the core trends in the art market over recent years has been the rise of design, which encompasses everything from sculptural furniture and studio ceramics to lighting and functional sculpture. No longer confined to the margins of the decorative arts, design is now a fixture of today’s art market circuit.

At the auction houses, demand from collectors continues to rise. In New York’s June design auctions, major houses—Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips—collectively saw sales of $65 million, a 64% jump from the previous year. These included the annual tentpole “Design” sales, which pulled in $49 million, a new high. This surge isn’t confined to New York. In Paris, Christie’s design sale in May hit €14.5 million ($16.94 million), blowing past pre-sale estimates, with 89% of lots selling and major pieces by Diego Giacometti and Jean Royère fetching more than €1 million ($1.16 million) each.

There is no better evidence of the growing interest in design than the rise of French artists Claude and François‑Xavier Lalanne, known collectively as Les Lalannes. Over the past decade, the pair has gained market momentum for their animal-inspired furniture and design objects. This came to a head when François‑Xavier’s 1964 sculpture Rhinocrétaire I sold at Christie’s Paris for €18.33 million ($19.4 million) in 2023. Demand for the artists remains strong: François‑Xavier’s Grand Rhinocrétaire II (2003) fetched $16.4 million at Sotheby’s in June, five times higher than its low estimate and accounting for nearly a quarter of the entire revenue that week. This result marked the second-highest price for the artist globally and the highest price in the U.S. This sale comes off the back of a $59 million sale dedicated to François‑Xavier’s works at Christie’s New York last October.

Les Lalannes represent the very top end of a category where there has been no shortage of landmark results in recent years.

In 2025 so far, new benchmarks have been set for everything from a fish bench and rhinoceros bar to a gorgeous stained-glass lamp. Here, we share six design pieces that set new auction records in 2025. All listed prices include fees.

Frank Lloyd Wright An Important Double-Pedestal Lamp for the Susan Lawrence Dana House, Springfield, Illinois, ca. 1904

Sold for: $7.49 million

Estimate: $3 million–$5 million

Sotheby’s

A rare lamp from the famed designer and architect Frank Lloyd Wright shattered expectations at Sotheby’s 20th century evening sale in May, selling for $7.49 million after sparking an intense 11-minute bidding war. The result more than tripled Lloyd Wright’s previous auction of $2.9 million for a 1902 ceiling light from the Francis W. Little House, which sold in 2023.

The Double Pedestal Lamp was originally designed for the Dana Thomas House, a sprawling Prairie-style residence in Springfield, Illinois. Completed in 1904, the house is one of Wright’s most ambitious early commissions and contains the largest intact ensemble of his custom-designed glass and furnishings.

This stained-glass table lamp glows with iridescent geometry and architectural precision, signatures ofLloyd Wright’s precise approach. Only two known examples of the piece exist; the other remains in the Dana Thomas House collection, where it has been since its acquisition in 1988.

Maria Pergay Dining table, unique piece, special commission, 2007

Sold for: €419,100 ($490,000)

Estimate: €150,000–€200,000 ($175,400–$233,800)

Sotheby’s

This dining table by French designer Maria Pergay set a new auction record at Sotheby’s “Important Design” auction in May, realizing €419,100 ($490,000). The result surpasses Pergay’s previous high of $421,000 set in 2007 for a rare one-arm “Banquet” daybed at Phillips.

Commissioned in 2007, this unique piece exemplifies Pergay’s fusion of sculptural aesthetics and technical rigor. The table’s elliptical steel top is inlaid with copper forms resting on gilt bronze legs modeled after stylized tree trunks. These naturalistic supports underscore Pergay’s deep engagement with organic motifs, juxtaposed with her use of industrial materials.

Pergay created the table when she was 77, bringing together hallmarks of her practice, including precision-cut stainless steel, warm copper, and expressive forms. A pioneer of French design, Pergay championed the use of stainless steel due to its resilience and accessibility. Her work has recently been the subject of renewed attention, particularly following the 2024 exhibition “Precious Strength: Maria Pergay Across the Decades” at Demisch Danant in New York.

Sold for: $406,400

Estimate: $150,000–$250,000

Phillips

A whimsical bronze bench by American designer Judy Kensley McKie sold for $406,400 at Phillips’s design sale in New York this June. The result narrowly surpassed the artist’s previous auction high of $487,500 for Jaguar Bench (1992) at Rago Auctions in 2022.

McKie, a Boston-based furniture designer, is known for her designs embedded with plant and animal motifs. Her work is included in the Smithsonian American Art Collection.

Titled “Fish” bench, the work transforms a stylized aquatic form into a functional seat, its quilted scales, broad tail, and rounded fins merging into a sculptural silhouette. Cast in bronze—a medium McKie began working with in the 1980s—the bench exemplifies her aesthetic of turning animal forms into functional objects. Like much of her work, “Fish” bench began as a drawing—part of the intuitive process the artist describes as “letting go a little more and sinking a little deeper into what you describe as the bottom of the pond.”

Sold for: €285,750 ($334,000)

Estimate: €7,000–€10,000 ($8,100–$11,600)

Sotheby’s

Known as one of the most important Art Deco silversmiths, Jean E. Puiforcat has seen increased attention at auction in the last year. Puiforcat shattered expectations at Sotheby’s Paris in May, soaring to €285,750 ($334,000), a whopping 40 times its high estimate. At the same sale, the artist’s second auction record was set when a group of flasks from 1930, estimated at €10,000–€15,000 ($11,600–$175,000), sold for €127,000 ($142,900).

Produced in 1930, the model 8461 vase was shown at the 1931 Union des Artistes Modernes show at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris, where Puiforcat helped define a new design language of austerity and elegance. In this work, machine-age geometry meets refined materials. Here, the cool silver metal is paired with fluted crystal, creating a delicate yet sharp architectural silhouette.

The Maharajah of Indore once acquired this model for his modernist palace Manik Bagh, and other famous collectors include Andy Warhol, who was a major collector of Puiforcat’s silver. When Warhol died, his collection was sold at Sotheby’s in 1988. That $451,000 sale included a tureen with aventurine decoration by Puiforcat that fetched $55,000.

Louis Cane Paire de ‘Très grands Citronniers, 2024

Sold for: €138,600 ($162,000)

Estimate: €40,000–€60,000 ($46,700–$70,140)

Christie’s

This pair of patinated bronze lemon trees by French artist Louis Cane sold for €138,600 ($162,000) at Christie’s design sale in Paris. At the same sale, Cane’s Commode Poule (2025) commanded his second-highest auction record of €94,500 ($110,000). These results outperformed the artist’s previous auction record of €84,010 ($94,543), which was set by SOIL SOIL / MUR (1973) at Artcurial Paris in 2019.

Standing 63 inches tall and signed on their planters, Très grands Citronniers renders the decorative refinement of the garden topiary with Cane’s playful, avant-garde sensibility.

Born in 1943 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, Cane emerged as a key figure in the Supports/Surfaces movement of the 1960s, known for its experiments with deconstructed canvases and conceptual approaches to painting. In the late 1970s, the artist shifted toward sculpture and furniture, merging baroque-inspired figuration with cabinetmaking, and by the 1990s, he had returned to bronze, embracing a more craft-driven practice.

Bae Se Hwa “Steam 12” bench, 2010

Sold for: $63,500

Estimate: $25,000–$35,000

Phillips

South Korean designer Bae Se Hwa’s flowing walnut bench, Steam 12 bench , sold for $63,500 at Phillips in June, nearly doubling its high estimate. The previous record was held by a 2011 version of the bench, which fetched $37,500 at Christie’s New York in December 2017.

Crafted from hundreds of thin walnut slats shaped through the traditional Korean steam-bending technique, the 2010 bench transforms solid wood into a rippling, almost liquid form. The work first debuted at Design Miami/ in 2010 and later featured in New York–based gallery R & Company’s 2019 survey of the artist, Steam 12 exemplifies Bae’s ability to combine material precision with sculptural grace. Accompanying this work is a series of similarly made furniture, all appearing to ripple with the meticulously placed wooden slats.

Sold for: $60,960

Estimate: $4,000–$6,000

Phillips

French designer Pierre Yovanovitch’s “Candy Pebble” side table catapulted to $60,960 at Phillips in June, 10 times over its high estimate and nearly tripling the artist’s prior auction record of €19,500 ($21,722). The auction record was previously set by Canapé – Piece unique (2010) at Plasa in 2019.

Born in 1965, Yovanovitch first gained attention for his work as an interior designer, which often features work by artists including Claire Tabouret and Alicja Kwade.

The side table is part of Yovanovitch’s first furniture collection, Pierre Yovanovitch’s Mobilier, which debuted in the summer of 2021. This piece was made in collaboration with ceramicist Armelle Bénoit. With its rounded, asymmetrical form and velvety layers of deep blue and crimson glaze, the table exudes both playfulness and refinement.

First shown at the Académie de l’Architecture in Paris’s Place des Vosges, the work reflects Yovanovitch’s sculptural approach to interiors—one that has made him a fixture on the Architectural Digest AD100 list for over a decade.

Michele Oka Doner Unique “Burning Bush” candelabrum with snuffer, ca. 1995

Sold for: $58,420

Estimate: $6,000–$8,000

Phillips