Photo: Andrew Shaylor Photography.
As 2022 comes to a close, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for being a part of Phillips' vibrant community.
This past year was one for the books. We kicked off 2022 having just achieved the highest annual total in company history, only to surpass it again this year with $1.3 billion in sales—our strongest year ever.
Throughout the past 12 months, we saw the resilience of the market and Phillips' strength within it. We continue to modernize collecting experiences with imagination, expertise and relevancy, realising new records and unprecedented totals along the way. This includes the sale of Jean-Michel Basquiat's monumental work, Untitled, for $85 million earlier this year, the top price ever achieved at Phillips. Private Sales is also driving extraordinary success, with results up 20% year-on-year. Further, our Watches department have achieved 100% sell-through rates for two years running, an accomplishment never before seen in the industry.
Beyond our bustling salerooms and digital channels, we’ve continued to expand our reach in key regions, from our first exhibitions and events in Seoul to our first regional representative in Texas, and the opening of Phillips' first gallery space in Los Angeles. Adding to this list of inaugural achievements, I am pleased to share that 148 artists and makers made their auction debuts at Phillips in 2022, powering both new careers and markets—truly a unique offering of items that is available nowhere else.
Outside of the commercial realm, we were proud to support several important cultural engagements around the world, including our sponsorships of Edward Hopper's New York at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Isamu Noguchi Exhibition at Zentrum Paul Klee, among others.
Overall, these milestone achievements have been a collective effort across all regions and departments. Phillips is not only the sum of our locations and sales but is also, and most fundamentally, about a cohesive team that is fuelled by an appetite for the new, filled with an intellectual curiosity and tapped into current culture in a way that is truly energising. These qualities—so embedded in our people and paired with entrepreneurial skill—are the secrets to our success.
Looking ahead, we have a great deal in store for next year including the much-anticipated opening of our dazzling new headquarters in Hong Kong's West Kowloon District, designed by Herzog & de Meuron.
Wishing you a restful holiday season and year-end. We look forward to welcoming you at Phillips in 2023.
Sincerely,
Stephen Brooks
Chief Executive Officer, Phillips
For a full schedule of upcoming sales, please visit the
Phillips Auction Calendar.