Short and sweet. Phillips raked in £17.5 million in about 70 minutes during its evening sale in London on June 30, a steady and efficient finale of a blockbuster season that began in New York in May.
The house focused on the middle market with no high-end trophy works to buoy the bottom line. Two of the 33 lots on offer at Phillips failed to sell and another two paintings were withdrawn before the event, presumably due to a lack of interest. Ninety-four percent of the works had never appeared at auction before.
“We took a slightly more cautious approach and I think it was the right decision,” said Jean-Paul Engelen,at Phillips. “It’s a testament to our focused strategy that even when the markets are down we are selling 94 percent of the works.”