Phillips’s modern and contemporary evening sale on 19 November generated nearly $54.8 million ($67.3 million with fees), a 25% increase over the same sale last year. Out of 33 lots, only two failed to sell, achieving a 94% sell-through rate. The top lot was Francis Bacon’s *Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer* (1967), which hammered at $13.5 million, followed by an untitled Joan Mitchell work from 1957-58 at $12 million. The sale also included natural history objects for the first time, such as a juvenile Triceratops skeleton nicknamed 'Cera,' which sold for $4.35 million. Female artists performed strongly, with Ruth Asawa’s copper wire sculptures sparking lengthy bidding wars and Firelei Báez setting a new artist record that was later broken at Christie’s the same evening.
This sale matters because it continues the positive momentum seen at Christie’s and Sotheby’s earlier in the week, signaling a robust art market despite the absence of major estates like the Leonard Lauder collection. The strong results for works by female artists—including Asawa, Olga de Amaral, and Alma Thomas—reflect growing market demand for historically underrepresented artists, bolstered by institutional recognition such as Asawa’s retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. The inclusion of natural history objects also marks a strategic expansion for Phillips, blending fine art with collectible fossils to attract new buyers.