Phillips de Pury & Co New Aggressive Strategy

Kelly Crow of the Wall Street journal recently reported that Phillips de Pury & Co is expanding the number of sales by 18 over the next year and half.  That is a rather aggressive move by the auction house in the current market.  Phillips also specializes in more modern and contemporary art, which has been hit the hardest over the past 12 months.  Crow points out that as Sotheby's and Christie's have tightened their financial belts in the past and for future sales.  While Phillips is taking a contrarian view, being much more aggressive with more print catalogs, expanded lot sizes, and the promotions of new, unknown artists. Part of the strategy appears to be to bypass the traditional gallery/artist relationship and bring new art directly to collectors through auction.

The expanded auction schedule will be alternated between New York and London.  This new aggressive posture is brought about by Bernd Runge the new Chief Executive of Phillips.  If you recall, and it was posted here on the AW Blog, Russian retail giant Mercury group took control of the auction house. This new strategy is a result of the new management and management style of Mercury.  It will be interesting to see how the new more aggressive strategy fairs.

Crow reports

Critics say that moving more untested artworks into the marketplace now could backfire if collectors hold on to their wallets, potentially rattling confidence in the overall art market. Others say the novelty of the plan—a disc jockey will play during a music-themed sale in October—could also inject life into a scene that's weary of feeling weary.

The art market has taken a battering this year, struggling even as other financial markets have taken small steps toward recovery. In the first half of 2009, Sotheby's sales were down 87% and Christie's sales were down 49% from the same period a year ago. Prices for new art have stopped plummeting, but the volume of contemporary art sales this summer was down 80% compared with last summer, according to ArtTactic, a London-based research firm that tracks global art sales.

Phillips is particularly vulnerable to art-market mood swings because of its tighter focus on contemporary art, photography, jewelry and design. Its auction sales total for the year currently hovers at around $60 million, well off pace from last year's $292 million total. At its last major sale in London this June, only one work sold for over $1 million, and the $8.4 million sales total fell just under its low estimate.

Mr. Runge has been tasked with turning the decline around. On a recent afternoon in London, he sat in a conference room flipping through the catalog galley for "Now," grinning as he pointed out magazine-style additions to the catalog format, including an interview with artist Keith Tyson . Before joining Phillips in March, he spent a dozen years as a Condé Nast International vice president, helping to launch 30 magazines including successful editions of Vogue and GQ in Russian and less successful editions like Vanity Fair in German, which recently closed.

To read the full Wall Street Journal article on Phillips by Kelly Crow, click HERE.