Art world shows signs of a healthy recovery

He added that the firm would focus its efforts over the next five years on expanding its online presence and on developing a new client base in mainland China.

The number of new clients who registered for a sale last year rose 23 per cent on 2009, and the number of people who went on to buy an item increased 13 per cent.

"It's that rise of new registrants which really for me signals both sustainability and actually further potential growth," said Pylkkanen.

"This new influx of buyers … continues to grow, and that really is the vital piece for me," he added. "I am very comfortable that it is sustainable."

Prices in several sectors soared and records tumbled last year, making up for steep losses triggered by the global economic crisis. New collectors and investors from China were one of the main factors behind the rebound.

Christie's main rival, Sotheby's, also enjoyed bumper sales, with its auction total, not including private sales, hitting $4.3bn (2.7bn) in 2010 compared with $2.3bn in 2009.

Last year, Christie's set a new auction record for a single work of art when Pablo Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves,and Bust fetched $106.5 million in New York in May.

It was just enough to surpass the $104.3m set by Sotheby's a few months earlier in London for a statue by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti.

Astronomic prices were fetched outside the auctioneering mainstream, most notably when Bainbridge's in England sold a Chinese vase discovered during a routine house clearance for 43m.

The following month, Bonhams, a major auction house, sold a blue-and-white Chinese porcelain dragon jar for $7.7m, more than 600 times its estimate.

Christie's said 28 per cent of its clients now bid for items online via its "Live" platform, a 5 per cent increase on 2009.

Online bidding would be one of two major areas of expansion in the business over the coming five years, according to Pylkkanen, because it opened up the art world to people other than the super-rich.

"It really isn't just about selling a picture by Picasso for $50m," he said. "It is much more about a broader range of clients, a broader offering.

"That will provide us with tremendous strength and also great growth opportunity in the next five years. Online is absolutely vital."Another potential area of growth was mainland China.

Christie's Asian art sales realised 570m in 2010, an increase of 115 per cent year-on-year.

"A lot of our efforts over the next five years will be in … developing a platform and the relationships that allows buyers in mainland China to buy in all of our auctions globally," said Pylkkanen.

Among the most spectacular gains registered last year was in the post-war and contemporary market, which raised 603m, up 147 per cent on 2009, Christie's noted.