Edward Dolman, CEO, said, “Tonight’s White Glove sale was a resounding statement of the strength and resilience of the art market and the contemporary market in particular. The result speaks to our enduring strength, and shows no diminishing of demand, as we saw great depth of bidding and huge pent-up demand. The live auction event as we knew it has been reimagined and transformed, with the excitement and energy of the auction room being telegraphed worldwide from our custom designed studio set in London, including a live video feed from New York and bidding feeds from around the globe. Stepping away from traditions has brought us ever closer to our growing community of collectors, with bidders from across 50 countries, including an unprecedented number of online registrants. The market has proven it is very much ready, and we look forward to our live auctions in Hong Kong next week, which is set to be an exceptional season for Phillips in Asia.”

 

Jean-Paul Engelen and Robert Manley, Worldwide Co-Heads of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, jointly said, “We have never had a business getting season like this, with so much uncertainty over the past few months, we have purposely targeted the works we know have a strong market, which has borne out in this 100% sold sale. Our sale showcased key artistic voices spanning the 20th and 21st centuries that are most sought after by today’s collector. We have benefitted from our long-standing Digital First strategy, which has made us highly adaptable and ultimately successful in this new world order. This sale also proves the strength of our relationships to collectors, many of the works tonight coming to us through deep relationships that demonstrate their trust in Phillips specialists during this unprecedented time.

Joan Mitchell’s 1962 Noël achieved a remarkable $11 million, demonstrating a robust market for her work, hailing from her early years in Paris when she innovated with slashing brushstrokes and emotive drip techniques. Gerhard Richter’s 1994 Abstraktes Bild (801-3) was a rare-to-market work from the height of his abstract period and achieved $3,680,000. The successful inclusion of Maxfield Parrish’s 1921 Humpty Dumpty recontextualized this figurative and nearly surrealist painting in the oeuvre of realism and 20th century art movements, a positioning trailblazed by Phillips last year with the inclusion of Norman Rockwell in a 20th Century & Contemporary Sale. Basquiat’s Victor 25448 is a remarkable example of a work from later in the artists’ oeuvre and one of the largest works on paper by the artist. This work demonstrates Phillips’ repositioning of Basquiat’s market with a record sale of his work from 1987, proving that masterworks hail from every era of his career.”