Auction Watch: Phillips October Sale Leads With Hockney and Hammers £12 Million
Image © Phillips / Path Through Wheat Field, July © David Hockney 2005 
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Phillips was third in line for the October marquee auctions. On Thursday, 10th of October, Phillips sold 24 out of the 34 lots offered, achieving a hammer total of just over £12 million–23% below the anticipated £15 million presale estimate.
Concluding the October marquee evening sales of the big three auction houses, Phillips Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale achieved £12 million at the hammer. This total reflects a 16% decrease compared to last year. What contributed to this shortfall? One obvious factor is the high interest rates in the UK, leading to more selective buying. Additionally, Phillips presented 34 lots, just six fewer than last year, but the sale saw a higher number of withdrawn and unsold lots–three withdrawals (including Lot 13 pre-sale) and seven unsold, though this was fewer than at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. While most of the withdrawn and unsold pieces were lower-valued, these works would have contributed an addition £4 million to the sale at the low estimate.
Despite these challenges, the auction achieved a 77% sell-through rate, with a refreshing selection of mostly fresh-to-market works–a balanced mix of emerging talent and established blue chip names.Slightly more than half of the lots either met or exceeded expectations, which was a positive outcome for the sale.
Here are the highlights:
Image © Phillips / Pumpkin (M) © Yayoi Kusama 2016 Yayoi Kusama and David Hockney Star Performers
The highest-valued lots of the sale were Pumpkin (M) (2016) by Yayoi Kusama and David Hockney’s Path Through Wheat Field, July 2005 (2005), each estimated between £2 million and £3 million. Kusama’s pumpkin fell slightly below estimates at the hammer but still achieved an impressive £1.9 million with fees–the first of this sculptural edition to appear in 2024. Following the trend set by Sotheby’s and Christie’s, Phillips smartly included a Hockney work, with Path Through Wheat Field emerging as the star lot of the sale. It hammered at £2.7 million, at the upper end of its estimate, and achieved £3.3 million with fees in its auction debut.
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Image © Phillips / Untitled (Fuck the Police) © Banksy 2000
Banksy Sets A New Record
Also delivering a strong performance was Banksy’s Untitled (Fuck the Police) (2006), a rare spray paint on board depicting a British policeman with a baton and the phrase “Fuck The Police” scrawled in red–sure to appeal to fans of Banksy’s Rude Copper print. Notably, this piece has an interesting provenance, having traded hands through various private collections and making two previous auction appearances. This reflects both the positive and negative aspects of Banksy’s market, such as high investment potential and liquidity, but also highlights the uncontrollable saturation that has impacted his market. In its third auction appearance, the work met expectations, hammering at £500,000 and achieving £635,000 with fees, marking a 14% increase from its last sale in 2019 and setting a new benchmark for this piece.
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Image © Phillips / This is life without you - You made me Feel like This © Tracey Emin 2018 Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst Hit The Mark
Other strong performances from blue chip British artists included Tracey Emin’s This is life without you - You made me Feel like this (2018), a canvas piece featuring the outline of a fragmented woman in Emin’s signature expressive style. The work hammered squarely within its estimate and achieved £889,000 with fees in its auction debut.
Following his strong showing in Christie’s sale, Damien Hirst also delivered a solid performance with Omnipotence (2008), a large-scale circular butterfly gloss piece known for showcasing the organic, delicate texture of butterfly wings. In its second auction appearance, the piece met expectations, hammering at £350,000 and achieving £444,500 with fees.
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Image © Phillips / Guns © Andy Warhol 1981 Other Hits and Misses
The king of Pop Art, Andy Warhol, made a notable appearance with several works, including two silkscreen canvas portraits of royals: Princess Diana (1982) and Prince Charles (1982). While Prince Charles failed to attract interest and went unsold, the green silkscreen rendition of Princess Diana hammered at £1 million, reaching £1.2 million with fees. Although a notable sale, this colourway was less popular than the blue version, which set a record at Phillips' March sale this year for £2.4 million.
Also from Warhol, Guns (1981), in its second auction appearance, set a new record, hammering at £450,000 and achieving £571,500 with fees, marking a 59% increase from its previous sale in 2014. This version is one of several variations of the Guns canvas series and demonstrated solid market demand.
Although valued on a lower scale in terms of hammer-to-estimate ratio, the strongest performances surpassing expectations came from younger talent such as Andreas Gursky, Anna Weyant, Marcel Broodthaers, and also Joseph Yaeger, who made his auction debut. One of Phillips' strengths in its curatorial approach, especially for this sale aligned with Frieze, is its ability to source works by artists closely tied to mid-sized galleries represented at at the fair, which helped draw attention to their pieces in the auction. For performance comparisons, refer to our Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction reports.
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