Phillips has closed 2025 with global sales of $927 million, marking a 10 percent increase against last year. The result follows impressive projected totals by Sotheby’s and Christie’s in 2025, with the houses registering a 17 percent and 7 percent increase, respectively.
The narrative coming from the “big three” is quite rightly upbeat, with their balance sheets showing renewed confidence from collectors. At Phillips, auction sales this year accounted for $725 million, while private sales surged to $202 million—an impressive 66 percent rise against 2024. The house’s total is still a way off its two main competitors, though; Sotheby’s said it is on track to bank $7 billion this year, its highest ever total, while Christie’s said it’s on course to take $6.2 billion.
“Our commitment to innovation, expertise, and client focus has never been stronger,” Martin Wilson, Phillips’ CEO, said in a statement. “This year has been defined by strategic ambition and meaningful progress, reshaping the way we engage with clients and the broader market.”
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A key driver of Phillips’ success has been the September launch of Priority Bidding, a first-of-its-kind platform offering reduced buyer’s premiums for early bids. Since its introduction, early selling bids have increased by 275 percent.
This year, on average Phillips achieved an 88 percent sell-through rate by lot across auctions, with evening sales hitting 90 percent by lot and 94 percent by value. Nearly 70 percent of artworks were sold online, and 33 percent of buyers were first-time participants, highlighting the auction house’s growing appeal to digitally driven collectors. The house recorded seven white glove auctions, meaning all works found buyers, alongside more than 110 world auction records across categories.
In the luxury division, Phillips’ watch department took $290 million, its highest annual total to date. Its Dropshop, a digital platform offering limited-edition releases of primary market art and objects in partnership with the artists, collaborators, and brands , saw 14 “drops” in total this year, including those of Susumu Kamijo, René Magritte, Leopoldo Goût, Tom of Finland, Le Corbusier, and Emmanuel Taku. Over 60 percent of their buyers had never purchased through Phillips before, and nearly 40 percent were Millennials or Gen Z.
Notable sales include a Patek Phillipe watch for $17.6 million, Francis Bacon’s Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer (1967) for $16 million, and the $5.7 million the house took for “Cera,” a juvenile triceratops skeleton from the late Cretaceous perdiod, no more than 66 million years ago.
“As we close out the year, I am immensely proud of how Phillips has continued to innovate with purpose,” Wilson said. “This year has been defined by strategic ambition and meaningful progress, reshaping the way we engage with clients and the broader market.”
