An art auction or fine art auction is the sale of art works, in most cases in an auction house.

In England this dates from the latter part of the 17th century, when in most cases the names of the auctioneers were suppressed. In June 1693, John Evelyn mentions a "great auction of pictures (Lord Melfort's) in the Banqueting House, Whitehall", and the practice is frequently referred to by other contemporary and later writers.

Normally, an auction catalog, that lists the art works to be sold, is written and made available well before the auction date.

Some of the best known auction houses are Christie's and Sotheby's. The oldest auction house is Stockholm Auction House (Stockholms Auktionsverk). It was established in Sweden in 1674.

Before the introduction of regular auctions the practice was, as in the case of the famous collection formed by Charles I, to price each object and invite purchasers, just as in other departments of commerce. But this was a slow process, especially in the case of pictures, and lacked the incentive of excitement. The first really important art collection to come under the hammer was that of Edward, Earl of Oxford, dispersed by Cock, under the Piazza, Covent Garden, on 8 March 1742 and the five following days, six more days being required by the coins. Nearly all the leading men of the day, including Horace Walpole, attended or were represented at this sale, and the prices varied from five shillings for an anonymous bishop's "head" to 165 guineas (gns.) for van Dyck's group of Sir Kenelm Digby, lady, and son.

The next great dispersal was Dr Richard Mead's extensive collection, of which the pictures, coins and engraved gems, &c., were sold by Abraham Langford in February and March 1754, the sale realizing a total that was unprecedented up to that time. The thirty-eight days' sale (1786) of the Duchess of Portland's collection is noteworthy for including the Portland vase, now in the British Museum. High prices did not become general until the Calonne, John Trumbull (both 1795) and Bryan (1798) sales.

The quality of the artwork sold by auction before the late 18th century was probably not high. The importation of pictures and other objects of art had assumed extensive proportions by the end of the 18th century, but the genuine examples of the Old Masters probably fell far short of 1%. England was felt to be the only safe asylum for valuable articles, but the home which was intended to be temporary often became permanent. Had it not been for the political convulsions on the continent, England, instead of being one of the richest countries in the world in art treasures, would have been one of the poorest. This fortuitous circumstance also greatly raised the critical knowledge of arkworks. Genuine works realized high prices, as, for example, at Sir William Hamilton's sale (1801), when Beckford paid 1,300 gns. for the little picture of A Laughing Boy by Leonardo da Vinci; and when at the Lafontaine sales (1807 and 1811) two Rembrandts each realized 5,000 gns., The Woman taken in Adultery, now in the National Gallery, and The Master Shipbuilder, now at Buckingham Palace. The Beckford sale of 1823 (41 days) was the forerunner of the great art dispersal of the 19th century; Horace Walpole's accumulation at Strawberry Hill, 1842 (24 days), and the Stowe collection, 1848 (41 days), were also celebrated. They comprised every phase of art work, and in all the quality was of a very high order. They acted as a most healthy stimulus to art collecting, a stimulus which was further nourished by the sales of the superb collection of Ralph Bernal in 1855 (32 days), and of the almost equally fine but not so comprehensive collection of Samuel Rogers, 1856 (18 days).

Three years later came the dispersal of the 1,500 pictures which formed Lord Northwick's gallery at Cheltenham (pictures and works of art, 18 days).