Phillips Deputy CEO Amanda Lo Iacono Talks about Focusing on the Next Generation after Things Flatten

On Tuesday night, Phillips New York began its auction week with its modern and contemporary evening sale generating $54.1 million with fees. That result marked a 23 percent drop from the $70 million total that last year’s equivalent November sale generated. The sale’s hammer total of $44.2 million was a far cry from the original low estimate of $62 million, and 28 percent below the estimate even when factoring in the two withdrawn lots. Not exactly an explosive start.

Prior to the sale, ARTnews spoke with Phillips Deputy CEO Amanda Lo Iacono about what’s driving different parts of the art market right now. Lo Iacono took over as Deputy CEO in January after then CEO Stephen Brooks stepped down in December and the house restructured its executive staff. That same month, the house reported a 15 percent drop in sales from 2022 to 2023.

Lo Iacono described the market dynamics as hopeful, saying that while sentiment has affected the highest end of the market (lots valued in the tens of millions), the middle segment (works valued between $300,000 and $5 million), the price level at which the house mainly operates, continues to be active behind the scenes.

“Phillips is a beneficiary of that,” she said.

(The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

ARTnews: How is Phillips navigating a retraction on top lots? For example, the evening sale’s expectation of $62 million was on par with last year’s figure. But the day sales are up 40 percent, so it’s shifted.

Amanda Lo Iacono: I think what has been interesting, in this kind of professed market downturn, is that we’re still seeing a lot of new buyers come into the market. When there’s a market that’s dynamic and moving, there are people that are always going to be cycling in and out, and there’s a lot of value in the market right now. Eighty-five percent of our lots are selling within or on estimate. And that’s a pretty solid metric.

Are you getting a sense of resistance at all from top collectors on selling now? Is there a cautiousness?

There’s always a question around election years: do people not sell in election years? We looked at the numbers and, really, there’s no major push or retraction in the market around election years. I think some of the factors that people are considering when they are looking to plan what to do with their collection, are certainly macroeconomic factors: the credit environment, inflation, and taxes. The change of governments can influence some of those. Those are one in a constellation of many economic or personal decisions people are making when they’re choosing to buy or sell.

As far as new buyers and people who are a bit earlier in their collecting career, what is Phillips seeing happen outside its main sales?

We’re looking at where the next generation is congregating. There are few places indicating our long-term strength: it’s in editions and with platforms like Dropshop [Phillips’s direct-from-artists sales platform], with limited-edition releases of art and objects, but in partnership with artists or collaborators or brands. That’s a platform where we’ve seen buyers from 21 countries, and over 50 percent of them are new to Phillips; 40 percent of them are millennials and younger. That entry point into the business [means] that we’re seeing a lot of clients who are familiar with Phillips and the auctions, but who haven’t transacted before.

That area of the business has some traction from the pandemic, like David Zwirner’s Platform. That business started in the first year with a low 15–20 percent sell-through rate after getting some luxury investors. Do you see that direct-from-the-studio concept as a third space in the market?

Yes, and I think it’s really more. At least the way we’re approaching it is around connecting the artists and their base in a different way. We’re seeing these artists who have huge followings. There’s such interest in their work. There’s not enough painting, or not everyone can afford a painting, and it’s kind of a way to create a more accessible medium or format that reaches a greater cross section of collectors. [Phillips declined to disclose sell-through rates for Dropshop.]

As far as luxury e-commerce specifically, do you think that is a genuine area of the business that is growing right now?

It’s still in the early days. It’s a really fragmented space. We have to follow where the next generation is going and there is a real interest and energy, which started around the pandemic. The market broadened and then also flattened. We needed a way to engage with a bigger cross section of clients, then just with paintings, because that’s a very finite pipeline.

Is there something in the gallery world that’s making it so that the ultracontemporary category is not as emphasized during the sales this year?

The pandemic was definitely an inflection point for ultracontemporary. But the proportion of the global auction sales that comprised contemporary artists has held steady around 25 percent for the past few years. Before the pandemic, it was more like 18 percent. We saw that step up and expanding of collectors at that time, but it’s stayed relatively stable since then. When I look at the compositional makeup of this year’s sales, buyer’s appetites are the dominant force creating those sales, rather than the sellers. It’s not so much that there’s less available ultracontemporary art. We kind of capture the fast-moving part of that shift through our private sales arm, where you move more nimbly. It’s a cleaner reflection of where collectors’ tastes are at the moment.

The volume for ultracontemporary is still there. It’s manifesting in different places, whether through day sales or private sales or selling exhibitions, and what you’re seeing in the auctions is not so much a reflection of what is available. We always have between 10 [percent] to 20 percent of the sale as modern material in the evening sales. But where we can really flex that muscle with a little bit more agency is through private sales.

How is the market right now compared to years past?

It’s a more measured market: buyers have maybe a bit more discipline than they had in those years [during the pandemic]: I also think people are thinking that Covid was the baseline for the market, and they’re forgetting that was exceptional, that was not a sign of a healthy market.