The evening auctions of modern and contemporary art in London last week suggested a stagnating market: At Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips, around half of the total lots sold for at or below their low estimates.

At Phillips’s salesroom in Berkeley Square, the results for its sales were chilly, with the housing netting $19.8 million, a 17.5 percent drop from last year. Just 24 of the 31 lots on offer wound up selling, and only a few exceeded their high estimates. The sale was led by David Hockney’s 2005 Path Through Wheat Field, July, which sold for £3.32 million (about $4.34 million), just over its high estimate, and a Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculpture went for £1.98 million (about $2.6 million). 

Other bright spots came from splashy contemporary names like Anna Weyant and Andreas Gursky, as well as the market newcomer Joseph Yaeger, who made his auction debut with Sphinx Without a Secret (2023), which sold for 10 times its estimate, at $265,000. Another runaway success of the evening came from an unusual place, as a Marcel Broodthaers assemblage tripled its estimate and sold for just a hair under half a million dollars. 

Below, the story of the numbers…

Total Sales After Fees: £15,132,040 ($19,788,850)

Total Sales of Equivalent Sale Last Year: £18,332,400 ($23,975,974)  

Hammer Total: £12,052,000 ($15,762,148) 

Top Seller: David Hockney’s Path Through Wheat Field, July, estimated £2,000,000 to 3,000,000 ($2,615,810 to $3,923,715) and achieved £3,315,000 ($4,335,705).

Lots on Offer: 31

Lots Withdrawn: 2

Lots Sold: 24

Lots Bought In: 7

Sell-through Rate: 77 percent

Presale Low Estimate: £15,350,000 ($20,072,428) 

Hammer Total vs. Presale Low Estimate: Hammer total £12,052,000 ($15,759,315) / Presale Low Estimate: £15,350,000 ($20,071,814)

Lots Guaranteed: 3

Lots With House Guarantees: 0

Lots With Third-Party Guarantees: 3

Total Low Estimate of Withdrawn Lots: £480,000 ($627,784) 

Total Low Estimate of Third-Party Guaranteed Lots: £1,500,000 ($1,961,828)

Parting Shot: Olivia Thornton, Phillips’s head of modern and contemporary art in Europe, said after the sale in a statement, “We continue to demonstrate our focused, adaptable approach in a market where collectors are more discerning than ever,” and highlighted the house’s ongoing relationship with “key consignors” who supported the auction, Marcel Brient and the Herbig Collection.