Christie's turnover totalled US $ 1,965 million in 1998 while Sotheby's recorded US $ 1,900 million. Christie's however failed to reach its 1997 turnover which was 3% better than last year's while Sotheby's improved their results by 5 %. These auction houses have been dominating the art market for many years and are far ahead of Paris, the Drouot auctioneers recording 2, 720 million francs (US $ 454 million) in 1998. However, the total turnover of French sales including Drouot and the results of other French auctioneers reached
8 863 millions francs (US $ 1,477,4 million), a figure that however includes sales of second hand and industrial goods.