Phillips Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale Totals $19.7m

A work by Gerhard Richter was the headline sale at Phillips 'Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale' on October 15 in London.

• The sale totaled $19.7m (GBP14.84m), meeting the pre-sale estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 20 works sold totaling $19.7m.
• Estimates totaled: $15.65m (low) and $22.05m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 87% of the original 23 lots announced.

The star lot was: Gerhard Richter, Mathis (1983), which sold for $7.75m, 2% below its $7.94m low estimate. It has been traded twice in the past.

The outperformer sold for 460% above its low estimate. Eva Helene Pade, Yellow Nights (2020), sold for $222,600 ($39,700 low estimate). It has not been traded before.

• 9 works, or 45%, sold above their high estimate.
• 10 works, or 50%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 1 works, or 5%, sold below their low estimate.
• 0 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Auction records

Joseph Yaeger, Once, always (2023), sold for $856,200, beating the artist’s previous auction record by $378,900, a 79% rise.

Eva Helene Pade, *Yellow Nights *(2020), sold for $222,600, beating her previous auction record by $92,900, a 71% rise.

Guaranteed sales

1 work was backed by a guarantee: Banksy, Keep Ou T (2019). It sold for $2.14m, 34% above its $1.59m low estimate. It has been traded once in the past.

Works that did not sell

0 works were bought-in.

Withdrawn before the sale

3 works were withdrawn before the sale, including: Ben Nicholson, Cumbrian Cottages (1928), estimated at $132,300 (low) to $198,400 (high). It was part of a group of works from Dartington Hall, Devon, jointly acquired in a private sale by two museums in the west of Engalnd: The Box in Plymouth and Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. The nearly $1.1m purchase was made possible by the Art Fund, a UK charity.

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.