The final sales picture from Frieze Week 2026 has landed, and the top of the market belonged to the old masters. Hauser & Wirth placed Jan Brueghel the Elder's Still Life of Flowers in a Stoneware Vase, painted around 1607–08, at Frieze Masters for a sum "in the region" of £5 million — about $6.6 million — making it the week's standout transaction. The painting carries a storied past: once part of the Rothschild collection, it was seized by the Nazis and later restituted, and last changed hands at Sotheby's London in 2016 for £3.8 million.

The same gallery reported a brisk week beyond the Brueghel. A Francis Picabia untitled work from the early 1940s went for €1.1 million, while a 1943 Picasso, Violon, changed hands for €850,000. Contemporary positions also moved: Avery Singer's Solver (v.3) brought $800,000, George Condo's Figure Composition took $600,000, and works by Lee Bul, Christina Kimeze, Allison Katz, Anj Smith and Nicole Eisenman sold across a $14,000-to-$290,000 band — evidence of activity reaching well below the trophy tier.

One of the most talked-about stands was the joint David Zwirner and Victoria Miro presentation of four Alice Neel paintings at Frieze Masters. All four sold for between $1.6 million and $1.8 million each, with one acquired by a major museum — a notable institutional placement for the late portraitist, whose market has strengthened steadily over the past decade. At Frieze London itself, Zwirner's sales were led by a new painting by Michaël Borremans at $1.5 million.

The tally suggests a week in which collectors concentrated on consensus names — historical masters with ironclad provenance and blue-chip contemporary painters — rather than speculative positions. Dealers and advisers described strong engagement through the VIP days, and the breadth of reported sales, from five-figure drawings to the $6.6 million Brueghel, points to a market that remains willing to spend when the right material appears.