Phillips Starts Off Contemporary Art Sales

Phillips was first out of the box for this weeks contemporary art sales in New York.  Unfortunately, the results were not positive, with the sale bringing $71.2 million including buyers premium against a pre sale estimate of $66.1 million to $97.3 million.  On the positive side, of the 44 lots offered, only 7 failed to sell for a very respectable 84% sell through rate.  Given the number of lots sold and the low sales total, we can only conclude that bidding and purchase prices were at the very low end of the spectrum.

The top selling lot was a Cy Twombly for $9 million including buyers premium (see image).

The NY Times reports that with the backing of Russian parent company Mercury the sale had nearly 40% had some form of guarantee or private financial arrangement.

The NY Times reports

Whatever the reason, Phillips de Pury & Company’s auction of contemporary art — which started this week’s back-to-back big-money auctions — was a tepid affair, with price resistance on everything from paintings by Warhol and Lichtenstein to sculptures by Jeff Koons and Maurizio Cattelan.

It was the first time that Phillips led off the week’s lineup, but whether this new position helped or hurt sales was impossible to gauge. The auction brought $71.2 million, just above its low $66.1 million estimate but nowhere near its optimistic $97.3 million high. Of the 44 works on offer, 7 failed to sell.

Ever since the Russian-owned retail giant Mercury Group bought it three years ago, Phillips has enjoyed an infusion of cash, enabling experts there to at least try to compete with the bigger auction houses by offering sellers guarantees — the undisclosed amounts that the houses sometimes promise to sellers regardless of the outcome of a sale.

Although Phillips officials said that the guarantees on Monday night were given by “a number of third parties,” people familiar with the auction house said they believed some of the guarantees were furnished by the Mercury Group itself or by a subsidiary.

More shortly on the Christie's and Sotheby's contemporary sales as the results are released.

To read the full NY Times article, click HERE.