Auction Analysis: London Post-War & Contemporary Evening Auctions – June 2017

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With only Sotheby’s and Phillips holding their post-war and contemporary sales in London this week, the season total for the evening auction sales was down 33% from June 2016, caused by Christie’s absence. Whether Christie’s decision to move their focus to October was a smart one is still to be seen, as both Sotheby’s and Phillips auctions performed well this week.

The post-war and contemporary art evening sales raised a total of £77,630,000 (excluding buyer’s premium), against a total pre-sale estimate of £65,640,000 to £90,900,000.

Sotheby’s kicked off the auction week in London with their Contemporary Art Evening Sale on the 28th of June (the Actual Size evening sale was held the week before on the 21st of June), achieving a combined total of £57.7 million. This was comfortably in the middle of the pre-sale estimate range of £48 million to £65.9 million and 31.5% above their sales total in June 2016.

This was followed by Phillips evening sale on the 29th of June. The auction achieved a hammer total of £20 million, putting it within the pre-sale estimate range of £17.6 million to £25 million. Phillips result was up 123.3% from June 2016.

With only two auction houses in the game, Sotheby’s took a leading market share of 74.3% (up from 37.6% in June 2016), while Phillips ended up with a 25.7% market share (up from 7.7% in June 2016).

REPORT CONTENT:

COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE (SOTHEBY’S AND PHILLIPS).

TOTAL SALES VS ESTIMATE (2008 – 2017).

AVERAGE PRICES 2008 – 2017.

HAMMER VS ESTIMATE RATIOS 2008 – 2017.

AUCTION GUARANTEE ANALYSIS.

AUCTION FLOW ANALYSIS (VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE AUCTION RHYTHM)

TOP AUCTION PRICES.