The analysis of Phillips and Poly Auction's joint 2020 Modern and Contemporary sale on December 3 is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

Phillips in Hong Kong achieved its highest total for a 20^th century and Contemporary art sale today when, in association with Poly auctions, one of mainland China’s biggest auction rooms, it sold 29 lots for HKD 388 million ($50 million) after one lot was withdrawn and two were unsold. The sale had been estimated to fetch in the region of $40 million so could be deemed a great success. (Sale prices include the buyer’s premium, estimates do not).

Phillips is a relative newcomer in Hong Kong and began staging 20^th century and Contemporary art sales in November 2016, so are still laying down roots. Like the Hong Kong leg of Christie’s sale yesterday, the early lots were peppered with works by western based artists, Phillips’ strongest suit, who have established a speculative momentum in Asia.

The report on Sotheby's October 28th Live-Stream Evening sale includes details on works that made a profit for their sellers and a number of surprising works that were sold at a loss . It is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

On top of numerous successful modern and contemporary art sales in Hong Kong, Paris and London since the end of July, Sotheby’s mounted its final putsch before the U.S. election yesterday with two sales from it New York headquarters, hoping to garner as much as $344.3 million without the additional buyer’s premium.

The resulting total $283.9 million including the premium, may have been disappointing, but as we shall see, many estimates were set as if normal conditions prevailed. (Prices include the buyer’s premium, estimates do not)

To achieve that much with a high sell-through rate of 97%, even below estimate, was, as Oliver Barker might have said, an ‘extraordinary’ achievement— his most used adjective of the night to describe the works of art he was selling. But then again, he was acting up for over 1 million viewers.

Launching with a contemporary art sale given an estimate of $128.2 million-$184.2 million for 41 lots, the sale made $142.8 million including buyer’s premium after five lots were withdrawn and two were unsold.

Among the withdrawn lots were a 1957 Clyfford Still with a $12 million-18 million estimate, and a 1987-8 Brice Marden with a $10 million-15 million estimate which were part of the much disputed sell off by the Baltimore Museum of Art and had carried third party guarantees which must have been rescinded.

The report is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

After a fairly nail-biting contemporary art evening sale in London last week, Christie’s global president Jussi Pylkkänen handed the auctioneer’s gavel to Arlene Blankers, Christie head of Decorative Arts in London for the house's "Thinking Italian: Modern Italian Art and Design," sale, no doubt conscious of the sea of empty bids that awaited her. Blankers ended up selling only 18 of the 30 lots offered, just 9 of which were within or above the estimate, for £5.3 million ($6.9 million) including premium—one of the lowest totals for an Italian sale in years and far below the £9.7-£14 million ($12.6 million-$18.2 million) pre-sale estimate, without premium.

The modern Italian art sales were a fixture in London’s auction calendar long before the Frieze fair was thought of, the brainchild of dealer, Ben Brown, while he worked in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art department in the 1990s. His sale was so successful, Christie’s followed suit the next year. At their peak in 2015-16 they were generating some £84 million ($109 million) between Sotheby’s and Christie’s in two evenings. A score of specialized Italian art galleries opened in London creating an alternative Italian festival within Frieze week.

But with the export of valued post-war modern art from Italy being restricted and the threat of Brexit to the movement of goods generally, the Italian market in London began to shrink. Sotheby’s stopped holding Italian sales last year, incorporating works within their mixed international modern and contemporary Art sales. This week, it was just Christie’s bravely persevering in pandemic conditions.