Temperatures near 100°F drove bidders to Phillips’s air-conditioned below-ground sale room for a marquee spring auction. The sale sold out and reached a $91.73m hammer total, or $115.2m with fees, landing within the pre-sale estimate range of $84.3m to $121.7m. The result marked a 67.4% increase from the previous November marquee auction and a 107.5% improvement versus the comparable sale a year earlier. Two lots were withdrawn before the auction, including works by Richard Prince and Albert Oehlen. Of 41 offered lots, 21 were backed by guarantees, supporting strong results even when bidding paused below estimates. Bidding came from in-room participants, online bidders, and phone clients, with the strongest competition not focused solely on the highest-priced trophy works.
"As the temperature in Midtown Manhattan climbed near 100ºF on Tuesday afternoon, art-market denizens sought shelter in Phillips's cool below-ground sale room on Park Avenue for the auction house's marquee spring auction. But the ample air-conditioning did not keep the competition for lots from heating up repeatedly, leading to a sold-out sale that brought in a solid hammer total of $91.73m ($115.2m with fees), firmly within the night's pre-sale estimate of $84.3m to $121.7m (estimates are calculated without fees)."
"That total represents a 67.4% increase from Phillips's marquee auction last November, which tallied nearly $54.8m ($67.3m with fees), and an impressive 107.5% improvement from the equivalent sale a year ago. Two lots were withdrawn before Tuesday's sale: a Richard Prince Nurse painting (est $2m-$3m) and a large black-on-white abstraction by Albert Oehlen (est $800,000-$1.2m). Of the 41 lots that were offered, just over half (21) were backed by guarantees, helping to ensure the white-glove result even the few times bidding stalled well below estimates."
"There was strong bidding from attendees in the room, bidders online and clients on the phones with Phillips specialists throughout the sale, although the fiercest bidding wars were not over the biggest-ticket works. The top six top lots by hammer price exactly matched the top six lots by pre-sale estimate, showing Phillips's specialists had done their homework-but also that the bidders with the deepest pockets were not moved to fight over trophy works."
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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