Phillips Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale Totals $115.2m

A work by Andy Warhol, which had a guarantee, was the headline sale at Phillips 'Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale' on May 19 in New York.

• The sale totaled $115.2m, meeting the pre-sale estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 41 works sold totaling $115.2m.
• Estimates totaled: $87.54m (low) and $126.5m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 95% of the original 43 lots announced.

The star lot was: Andy Warhol, Sixteen Jackies (1964), which sold for $16.23m, 8% above its $15m low estimate but significantly less than the $25.94m it fetched at auction in 2023. The work was backed by a guarantee and it has been traded 10 times in the past.

The outperformer sold for 695% above its low estimate. Joseph Yaeger, There is a light and it always goes out (2021), sold for $477,300 ($60,000 low estimate), setting a new auction record for the artist. It has been traded once in the past.

• 16 works, or 39%, sold above their high estimate.
• 20 works, or 49%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 5 works, or 12%, sold below their low estimate.
• 0 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Auction records

Joseph Yaeger, There is a light and it always goes out (2021) sold for $477,300, a 49% jump in the artist's auction record.

Peder Severin Kroyer, Self-Portrait, Sitting by His Easel at Skagen Beach (1902) sold for $1.29m, a 30% rise.

Pat Passlof, Fortune (1960) sold for $580,500, a 7% rise.

Guaranteed sales

21 works were backed by guarantees, including: Claude Monet, La Route de Vétheuil, effet de neige (1879). It sold for $9.29m, 32% above its $7m low estimate.. It has been traded 10 times in the past.

Works that did not sell

0 works were bought-in.

Withdrawn before the sale

2 works were withdrawn before the sale, including: Richard Prince, Nurse Kathy (2006), estimated at $2m (low) to $3m (high).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. 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Withdrawn: This happens when a seller decides, for whatever reason, to withdraw a work before the bidding begins.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.