Phillips Reduces Fees for Early Bidders at Live Auctions This Autumn

News The Five Artists Who Achieved Records at Phillips $52m Evening Sale in New York Elaine YJ Zheng

This autumn, auction house Phillips is instituting lower fees for early bidders at live auctions with a ‘first-of-a-kind’ incentive introduced to ‘[create] more momentum in the early stages of bidding’, while ‘providing greater certainty for sellers’. 

On Tuesday, Phillips announced a new bidding model that will reduce the buyer’s premium rate ‘significantly’ for written bids placed 48 hours ahead of an auction’s start time. 

The tentative change will be applied across all categories besides watches at its in-person autumn sales and ‘potentially beyond’.

This will see buyer’s premiums drop 4% (from 29 to 25%) for hammer prices up to $1 million (all figures USD), 2% (from 22 to 20%) for the subsequent segment from $1 million to $6 million, and by 1% for that over $6 million.

Successful early bidders will benefit from the new premium regardless of the final hammer price. The initial amount must be equal or greater than the lot’s designated lower estimate. 

‘Phillips prides itself on innovation and bold new ideas,’ said CEO Martin Wilson, explaining the ‘strategic adjustment’ will help the house continue to deliver better results for their clients, adding it will support ‘a more vibrant auction experience’.

‘Our aim now is to strengthen our position on this front by encouraging early engagement in order to generate spirited bidding while also providing greater certainty for sellers,’ he said.

Faced with a slower market, auction houses have diversified strategies, with Sotheby’s zeroing in on single-owner sales, third-party guarantees, and untapped markets like Saudi Arabia, where it accepted cryptocurrency payment for the first time at its sale in Riyadh earlier in February. 

Last week, Christie’s reported $2.1 billion in sales for the first half of 2025, with luxury sales registering a 29% year-on-year increase and accounting for close to a quarter of sales.

The overall figure matches last year’s results, while registering a 22% drop from 2023. Modern and contemporary art saw a 2% decline, while Older Masters rose by 15%, and women artists have seen increasing representation and interest across the board. —[O]

Main image: Exhibition view: Thierry Noir, Rush Hour, Phillips, Hong Kong (9–31 July 2025). Courtesy Phillips.