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Global collectors shrugged off the stock market declines and the war in Iran last week to spend more than $600 million on classic cars and fine art, signaling continued strength at the top of the economy.

Last week’s art sales in London topped $550 million, up over 50% from last year, according to Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips auction houses. Some works sold for more than twice their estimates and records were set for several artists, with bids pouring in from 40 countries.

Also last week, at the Amelia Island Concours in Florida, Broad Arrow Auctions hosted the most successful auction ever at Amelia, totaling $111 million. The sale, which included a $15 million 2003 Ferrari Enzo and a $6.7 million 2005 Porsche Carrera GT, followed a strong auction a week earlier by RM Sotheby’s at ModaMiami that reached $74 million.

The strong results in both art and classic cars, stretching from London to Florida, show continued confidence among wealthy consumers even as volatility picks up and oil markets surged on the outbreak of war in the Middle East. Experts say the global turmoil may have even helped demand for rare collectibles, as the wealthy search for safe, long-term stores of value in an increasingly uncertain world.

“It’s surprising, yet not surprising,” said Drew Watson, head of art services at Bank of America. “It’s surprising with all that’s going on geopolitically. But when times are uncertain, and I think we’re in a broader era of uncertainty, people go with the tried and true.”

The strong prices continue a rapid rebound in collectibles markets following two years of declines. In 2023 and 2024, art auction totals fell by 40% from their 2022 peak, despite soaring stock markets and falling interest rates. President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement in April last year only added to the gloom.

By late summer, however, collectibles sprang back to life. The classic car auctions at Monterey and Pebble Beach in August topped $430 million, marking the second-highest total ever. The next month, a Sotheby’s sale in London of the collection of British socialite Pauline Karpidas fetched $135 million, soaring past its estimate. The strength continued in Paris and the big New York sales in November, followed by big crowds at Art Basel Miami in December.

Kenneth Ahn, president of Broad Arrow, said the wealthy today seem to have become inured to the chaotic headlines and market gyrations.

“I don’t know if desensitization is the right word,” Ahn said. “But leading up to this, we’ve had Russia, which has been going on for a while, and the market has been fluctuating. What the market has done is effectively shut out those concerns as noise.”

Ahn said the current era of classic car collectors differ dramatically from those of the past. Previous buyers, mainly baby boomers, were highly sensitive to market swings and economic cycles. He recalled a sale in Monterey in 2019 days after the stock market fell 400 points and bond yields were signaling recession.

“I had a client walk into the auction room and say ‘I just lost 30 million bucks over the last two days of my portfolio. I’m not sure if I need to bid on this car right now,’” he added.

Ahn said today “feels different.” Despite the market volatility and uncertainty, “there’s still this incredible optimism in the car market,” he said.

The reasons vary. Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s lead auctioneer and chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, attributed the market’s strength to the ultra-rare works being offered for sale.

“I think it’s a function of the quality of the material that the market is seeing at the moment,” Barker said. “For savvy collectors, this is such an incredible opportunity to acquire rare-to-market and highly qualitative examples.”

A lack of supply, not demand, has been the main source of weakness in the art market, many say. After Christie’s blockbuster $1.5 billion Paul Allen sale in 2022, which included famed works by Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin, few mega-collections came up for sale in 2023 and 2024.

Last fall, big estates returned. The sale of works from the collection of Leonard Lauder at Sotheby’s included a rare Gustav Klimt that sold for $236 million, making it the second-most expensive work ever sold at auction.

The sales in London last week included celebrated British works from the collection of Joe Lewis, the U.K. billionaire and investor. A self-portrait by Francis Bacon went for $21.5 million, doubling its low estimate. A painting by Leon Kossoff, called “Children’s Swimming Pool, 11 o’clock Saturday Morning, August” sold for $7 million after a bidding war between 10 bidders.

And at Christie’s, a sculpture by Henry Moore, titled “King and Queen” sold for $35.2 million — a record for Moore — after six bidders competed in the auction.

Barker and others said there’s been a “return to quality,” meaning collectors are bidding up the best works by famous artists rather than buying more speculative works by younger, less established artists. The big brand names of the art world — Picasso, Monet, Warhol — were all big drivers of prices last week.

“It’s a perfect moment where there is a greater supply of great material, and there is also an extraordinarily hungry buyer class,” Barker said. “We’re seeing not only the depth of bidding that we’ve not experienced recently, but a much, much deeper depth of quality material.”

Another factor in the renewed strength of collectibles is a new generation of buyers. As the baby boomers slow their buying or sell their collections, Gen Xers, millennials and even some Gen Zers are stepping in. Some are entrepreneurs and tech founders, while others have inherited their wealth as part of the $100 trillion great wealth transfer.

While they’re buying a broader range of collectibles, from sneakers and handbags to Pokémon cards and sports memorabilia, they’re starting to make purchases in the art and classic car markets. And they are adding to the buyer’s pool.

“I do think we’re very much in the middle of a generational transition,” Watson said. “We have seen a lot of the collectors who have driven the postwar and contemporary market over the past couple of decades starting to age out. And we have the rising generational cohort moving in. “

The shift is most dramatic in the classic car market. A market once dominated by 1950s and 1960s sports cars has quickly become eclipsed by supercars of the 1990s and 2000s, favored by the new wave of younger collectors. While the trend started before the pandemic, it has accelerated in the past three years, Ahn said.

“We’ve seen almost a parabolic move in prices for some of the modern hypercars and supercars over the past six months,” Ahn said. “There is a seismic shift that’s happening. It’s the great wealth transfer: We’re seeing it, we’re feeling it. This is a huge emergence of successful entrepreneurs who exited their business in their 30s and 40s, or inherited enormous amounts of capital, and they are passionate about the cars they grew up with.”

Not all collectibles segments are benefitting from the rising spending. While ultra-Contemporary art drove most of the post-pandemic recovery, sales by Contemporary art dealers were stagnant in 2025, according to the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report. Higher costs have also forced some galleries to close, even as buyers flock to auction houses and at fairs for older works by recognized artists.

“On balance, this year’s data points to something more consequential than a return to growth,” said Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel. “It reflects a sector adjusting to new economic realities, refining its models and strengthening its foundations for the long term.”

Yet with stock markets likely to remain volatile, and interest rates potentially falling, the financial backdrop for collectibles remains strong. Add to that the fact that America’s wealthiest 1% have seen their wealth nearly double since 2020, to over $55 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve, and experts say the bull run in the art and classic car markets is likely to continue.

“We’re optimistic that a lot of that more positive sentiment, at least in the art market, will continue,” Watson said.

NEW YORK — Lucid Group expects to be cash flow positive late this decade as it plans to grow its vehicle lineup and significantly increase its software and technology offerings, the all-electric vehicle maker announced Thursday during its first investor day in nearly five years as a public company.

The EV company aims to accomplish positive cash flow generation through market expansion into midsize vehicles and robotaxis, as well as international expansion in markets such as Europe and Saudi Arabia. It also expects to achieve efficiency gains and software revenue growth with the introduction of improved advanced driver assistance systems and a new Lucid artificial intelligence assistant, executives told dozens of investors and Wall Street analysts on Thursday.

Lucid stock closed Thursday at $9.84, down 7.9%. Shares were off roughly 6% to 8% during much of the event despite the company giving its most detailed product and expansion plans to date, highlighting the tough market conditions for EV companies.

“We view the midterm and late decade targets as an important benchmark against which investors can measure LCID’s progress which will improve transparency,” Baird analyst Ben Kallo said in a Thursday investor note. “The near-term backdrop for EVs remains challenging with headwinds such as tariffs and policy muting investor sentiment.”

Lucid’s cash flow target is challenging given the automaker’s current performance and waning demand for EVs in the U.S. While Lucid has been able to increase sales and narrow losses, the company lost $2.7 billion on revenue of $1.35 billion in 2025. It had negative free cash flow of $3.8 billion in 2025, a loss that was roughly 31% larger than a year earlier.

Lucid interim CEO Marc Winterhoff — who unexpectedly took over for company founder Peter Rawlinson last year — said the company’s “north star” is “accelerating to profitability,” reiterating the investor event’s theme. He and other executives declined to disclose an exact year the company aims to be cash flow positive.

The automaker has been trying to increase investor interest in the company as it prepares to launch a new midsize vehicle at the end of this year. Its largest shareholder, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has also changed its investment strategy in the company from capital investment to revolving credit.

Winterhoff and Uber President and Chief Operating Officer Andrew Macdonald on Thursday announced they are planning to expand a previously announced tie-up for robotaxis to include upcoming midsize vehicles.

Expansion into midsize and autonomy is expected to significantly increase Lucid’s total addressable market, or TAM, from $40 billion for its current Air sedan and Gravity SUV to $700 billion, executives said Thursday.

Winterhoff said he sees the company’s autonomy technologies essentially growing to match Tesla’s current FSD by next year.

The three midsize vehicles are targeted at upscale buyers, younger “trendsetting achievers” and outdoor enthusiasts, Jenkins said. The last would be a direct competitor to fellow EV competitor Rivian Automotive, which is expected to release a new R2 midsize vehicle this spring, beginning with a roughly $58,000 version of the vehicle.

Lucid has said its midsize vehicle is expected to begin at roughly $50,000. That would position it in line with the average transaction prices of new vehicles in the U.S. as well as entry-level models of Rivian’s R2.

Both Rivian and Lucid are attempting to reassure investors that they can not only compete in a troubled EV market but thrive through the expansion of new vehicles and technologies to better compete against U.S. EV leader Tesla. Lucid said its new midsize EV platform will be class-leading in efficiency, something the company has strived to do with all its vehicles.

Both have touted having enough capital to get them through near-term initiatives but their long-term viability is still a major question for investors.

Lucid has said its total liquidity of $5.5 billion, including a roughly $2 billion delayed draw term loan credit facility from Saudi’s PIF, is enough to get through the first half of 2027.

Rivian ended the fourth quarter with $6.59 billion in total liquidity, including nearly $6.1 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, as the company attempts to ramp up production this year of its midsize vehicle and new autonomy technologies.

— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.