Shrinking Summer Season for London Auctions
With fewer sales, lots, and risk-takers, what might the future hold for the U.K. summer auction season?
Phillips Modern and Contemporary Auction June 2024. Courtesy Phillips.
The June auction season in London closed with a whimper on Thursday, as Christie's and Phillips held their highest-value contemporary art sales of the summer.
Sotheby's Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction on Tuesday brought in a total of £71.8 million, falling below their low estimate of £76.4 million. The resulting coverage was bleak, with The Art Newspaper musing, 'is the summer auction season over?'
The powers that be at Christie's and Phillips certainly seem to think so. Both auction houses decided to forego separate Evening and Day sales at their flagship locations, implying a lack of confidence or consignments.
Last June, Christie's Day sale had 158 lots alone, with an additional 66 for their Evening sale of 20th and 21st-century art. This summer, their live auction had 139 lots on offer. Katharine Arnold, Head of Post-War and Contemporary Europe, said Christie's was 'delighted to be re-envisioning the summer season'.
The Post-War to Present sale on 27 June was led by auction debuts for Daisy Parris, perhaps reflecting abstraction returning to favour, and ceramicist Clementine Keith-Roach, marking a welcome respite in the painting-dominated market. They achieved £28,000 and £23,000 respectively, both well above estimates.
While many lots matched their estimates, works by Ben Sledsens and Yoshitomo Nara achieved comfortably above. The star lot, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's 5am, Cadiz (2009), hammered for £450,000, above reserve but below its low estimate of £600,000.
One could argue that the contemporary auction, partly dedicated to supporting local art non-profit Studio Voltaire, was overshadowed and perhaps under-marketed in comparison to the concurrent Vivienne Westwood sales. Part I of the auction series took place live on Tuesday, totalling £465,192 with fees. Part II closes online today.
Overall, Christie's Post-War to Present sales achieved £10,367,028 with fees and 87 percent of lots sold, although likely failing to meet its pre-fee low estimate of £9.1 million. When asked, Christie's declined to provide the total figure achieved without premiums.
Despite a significantly lower sell-through rate of 71 percent, Phillips brought in £10,279,500 before fees, still under its low estimate of £11.6 million.
Phillips rebranded their 20th Century to Now sale as the Modern & Contemporary Art: Evening & Day Sale, with the Evening portion ironically starting mid-afternoon, immediately followed by the Day portion. The atmosphere felt a bit more relaxed, with chief auctioneer Henry Highley joking with one inquisitive Damien Hirst bidder about whether they work for the competition.
The most significant moment was a new record for Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid. The Bird Seller: Are You Listening (2021) is her first oil painting to come to auction, matching its low estimate of £300,000.
The auction also boded well for the photography market, with a suite of lots featuring Cindy Sherman, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Andreas Gursky all hitting good prices.
Kehinde Wiley's Female Fellah (2010) was quietly withdrawn, perhaps due to recent controversy surrounding the painter.
Last year, Phillips' main sale was followed by a New Now sale in July, which is no longer in the house's summer calendar. Sotheby's did away with their Now Evening Auction this season too, after holding the dedicated ultra-contemporary auction in London three times in 2023.
With the season closed, the next major event for London's auction houses unfortunately appears to be a major round of layoffs. The Financial Times reported earlier this month that Christie's and Sotheby's would be facing staff cuts and Sotheby's has confirmed that a significant portion of its London office will be made redundant.
As auction houses navigate opportunities between the luxury and art markets, it is notable that Sotheby's fine art departments are rumoured to lose more than three times as many staffers as luxury, chiefly at the middle and senior levels.
As Sotheby's restructures its top employees, the remainder of staff will learn next week who has not made the cut, marking an uninspiring epilogue to this auction season. —[O]
