PRESS RELEASE
STRONG RESULTS AT PHILLIPS’ NEW YORK MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART SALE EXCEED $8.5 MILLION
Andy Warhol’s Molly Leads the Sale, Quadrupling Estimate
Notable Results Achieved by Women Artists, Including Alice Baber,
Nicole Wittenberg, and Others
New York, 28 February 2026
Sale Total: $8,519,160 / £6,318,337 / €7,209,748
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Lots Sold: 149 | Lots Offered: 164 |
Sold by Lot: 91% | Sold by Value: 94% |
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Andy Warhol Molly, 1956 Sold for $412,800 |
Alice Baber Ladder over and under, 1972 Sold for $387,000 |
Nicole Wittenberg Alford Lake, 2022 Sold for $38,700 |
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Avery Semjen, Specialist, Head of Sale, said, “This past Saturday’s Modern & Contemporary Art Sale in New York saw strong demand across the board, achieving a sell‑through rate of 94% by value. Held on the last day of February, the sale bolstered a fitting start to International Women’s Month, opening with several works by women artists, each surpassing their high estimates. Sasha Gordon set the pace with a result several times above expectations, while Alice Baber led this opening sequence with a price more than six times its estimate, and achieving her second highest price at auction. The exceptional result coincides with Alice Baber: Sacred Spaces, a landmark selling exhibition celebrating one of the most distinctive voices in Post‑War American abstraction, on view in our galleries from 6–25 March. Strong performances by contemporary artists were led by Wolf Kahn, Beverly Pepper, Dana Schutz, Barkley L. Hendricks, Cinga Samson, Alessandro Twombly, Kehinde Wiley, Natalie White, and Nicole Wittenberg, whose Alford Lake set a new auction record for the artist. Modernist highlights also performed impressively, with works by Georges d’Espagnat, Sarah Bernhardt, and Jacques Lipchitz far exceeding expectations. These results affirm the strength of demand across every category, and we look forward to carrying this momentum into our Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London on Thursday, 5 March.”
Please see PDF for full press release.