Phillips Modern & Contemporary Art Evening & Afternoon Sale Totals $15.71m

A work by David Hockney was the headline sale at Phillips 'Modern & Contemporary Art Evening & Afternoon Sale' on June 26 in London.

• The sale totaled $15.71m (GBP11.92m), meeting the pre-sale estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 74 works sold totaling $15.71m.
• Estimates totaled: $13.84m (low) and $19.66m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 77% of the original 96 lots announced.

The star lot was: David Hockney, The Only One with Waves (1991), which sold for $3.19m, 32% above its $2.41m low estimate. It has been traded 3 times in the past.

The outperformer sold for 535% above its low estimate. Hsiao Chin, Inner Light (1966), sold for $680,200 ($107,100 low estimate). It has been traded twice in the past.

• 39 works, or 53%, sold above their high estimate.
• 25 works, or 34%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 10 works, or 14%, sold below their low estimate.
• 0 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Auction record

Andrew Cranston, Meditation in a tenement (2023) sold for $110,500. The sale beat the artist’s previous auction record by $29,500, a 36% rise.

Guaranteed sales

2 works were backed by guarantees, including: Yayoi Kusama, INFINITY-NETS (MAE) (2013). It sold for $2.04m, 90% above its $1.07m low estimate.. It has been traded 5 times in the past.

Works that did not sell

16 works were bought-in, including: Bridget Riley, Measure for Measure 40 (2019), estimated at $669,200 (low) to $936,900 (high). It has been traded once in the past.

Withdrawn before the sale

6 works were withdrawn before the sale, including: El Anatsui, Delta (2014), estimated at $936,900 (low) to $1.2m (high).

Terms and definitions

All results include the fees and premiums added to the price of a work of art when the auctioneer's hammer falls. Estimates, sale prices and totals are converted into US dollars. Sale prices are compared to the auction house’s low estimate, which do not include premiums.

Guarantees: Sometimes an auction house guarantees to pay a seller for a work, regardless of whether the bidding reaches the reserve price, a figure that is typically confidential.

Bought-in: If there are no bids for a work, or if bidding falls short of the reserve price, the lot is unsold or “bought-in”.

Withdrawn: This happens when a seller decides, for whatever reason, to withdraw a work before the bidding begins.

Premiums: Typically a sliding-scale of charges paid in addition to the hammer price by the buyer, plus any other fees.