Phillips’s Modern and Contemporary art evening sale in New York on Wednesday achieved $67.3 million, a 24.4% increase over last year’s total but far below the $154.6 million record set in 2023. The 33-lot sale landed at the top end of its pre-sale estimate, with Francis Bacon’s *Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer* (1967) selling for $16 million as the top lot. Notably, the auction included dinosaur bones for the first time—a juvenile triceratops skeleton nicknamed Cera—which proved a lucrative draw, while a painting by rising British artist Jadé Fadojutimi and a gold nugget called “The Thunderbolt” both failed to sell. Only one new artist record was set, for Firelei Báez at $645,000.
The results underscore the uneven state of the contemporary art market, which remains cautious despite strong sales earlier in the week at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Phillips’s inclusion of dinosaur bones signals a strategic shift to attract broader buyer interest, while the lack of speculative bidding on young artists suggests collectors are prioritizing established names and tangible assets. The sale’s performance, though solid, highlights ongoing market recalibration after the boom years, with consignors like Chinese businessman Zhang Chang taking losses on high-profile works purchased in the mid-2010s.