As the art world gears up for the busy auction season, with marquee sales in London and New York, Observer sat down with Phillips’ head of day sales, Patrizia Koening, to discuss the auction world, what’s happening at Phillips and what we can expect from the upcoming season. When we met, the auction house’s galleries were showing highlights from the New Now: Modern & Contemporary auction, which had just opened and will be on the rostrum on September 25. The auction features a solid selection of market stars whose demand has grown over the pandemic and in the years following, including Sara Anastasis (Only the Beach, the Sea, and the Two of Us (2019), estimated at $10,000-15,000), Yuan Fang (Expanse (Three Figures), estimated at $15,000-20,000) and Loie Hollowell (Squirt, estimated at $50,000-70,000). The sale will also present some auction debuts, including Veronica Fernandez’s In Flight, with an estimate of $5,000-7,000, alongside other niche names with recent buzz, such as Brook Hsu (satyr family, estimated at $10,000-15,000) and Roberto Gil de Montes, whose painting in the sale has a high estimate of $12,000.

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Notably, this season, all the estimates appear reasonable and conservative. However, the volume and quality of consignments suggest that collectors still have enough confidence in the market to sell. As we stroll through the sale, Koening acknowledges that the market has cooled since the exuberance of the pandemic, but not necessarily for the worse. “Collectors are more discerning,” she tells Observer. “They’re looking for quality. It’s a buyer’s market.” There’s been some contraction at the auction house, but things get lively when high-quality consignments are available. “If a work is fresh to the market—meaning it’s the first time someone has the opportunity to acquire it—and it’s excellent quality, we’re still seeing great depth in bidding.”

Phillips has built its business around contemporary art, particularly “ultra-contemporary” art, often serving as a debut platform for emerging artists. This is a delicate moment in an artist’s career, one that can speed or derail their career trajectory. While auction houses are often seen as antagonists or threats in the artist-gallery ecosystem, Koening tells Observer that Phillips takes a careful approach to positioning artists in the secondary market, fully aware of the responsibility. “We do a lot of research and are constantly trying to do more, engaging in open dialogue with galleries and collectors to understand where demand lies and how strong markets are. Our goal is to create a sustainable market for these artists. It’s in all our best interests.” Indeed, Phillips helped build the secondary market for Michaela Yearwood-Dan, who just last week joined Hauser & Wirth after a sold-out show at Marianne Boesky a few months ago. Last year, her painting sold for $878,300 at Christie’s London, setting a record price.

Koening began her career at Phillips as a writer and researcher, and during our conversation, she highlighted the critical role research plays in positioning a lot, justifying its estimate and enhancing its value. When she first joined, Peter Doig’s Red House sold for over $21 million, setting the fourth-highest auction record for the artist. “I played only a minimal role as a writer and researcher, but all that work was key in positioning the piece,” she recalls.

She joined Phillips after holding several different roles in the art world, in both galleries and auction houses. With a master’s degree from Oxford in hand, she found herself drawn to the art market. Initially, she was intrigued by Chinese art and its market and specialized in that, but an internship at a regional auction house led to another in Christie’s postwar contemporary art department in London. Koening also explored opportunities in the gallery scene, working as a sales associate at 1301PE in L.A. “I loved working with artists, but I felt the pull back to auctions,” she says, and it happens that when she had that realization, Phillips was in a significant growth phase. “A lot of top specialists from across the industry had just joined. It was a 200-year-old auction house, but so many new things were happening.”

Today, Koening wears many hats, and only part of her job involves estimating and selling. She describes her role as ‘business-getter.’ “I bring in consignments, guide clients through the auction and private sales process and provide valuations,” she explains, adding that building relationships with clients, both sellers and consignors, is a huge part of what she does. Her approach to art and working with clients is very different from what she was doing in her gallery days, where “you’re working with very limited material. At an auction house, I have a more objective role and feel fortunate to advise clients with data to back up my recommendations.”

Phillips recently rebranded its Modern and Contemporary sales as the “New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art” auction, strategically positioning 20th- and 21st-century art on equal footing. “We wanted to highlight our expertise in Modern art,” Koening says of the broader restructuring that began when Edward Dolman joined Phillips as executive chairman. The auction house is aiming to not only draw attention to a broader range of categories but also attract a broader, and possibly younger, audience. “It’s also about understanding how collectors approach art; they don’t always focus on one genre,” she adds. “Where other houses have separate departments, we’ve combined modern, postwar and contemporary into one category, focusing purely on quality and allowing for exciting discoveries.”

Some have suggested that this new phase in the market stems from speculators exiting and only committed buyers remaining—specifically buyers who are more mindful about what they purchase. When asked whether she’s noticed changes in buyer behavior, Koening tells us that bidding has shifted, but only slightly. “You’re not seeing as many collectors competing over the same lot, driving up prices.” As for geographic distribution, the U.S., and especially New York, remains a key focus, but Phillips has invested heavily in Asia, which remains very active. “Depending on where an artist has their market, we often see new collectors engage with material they might not have previously encountered at Phillips,” Koening says. “For example, with the late Trinidad-born Canadian artist Denise Tomasos, we saw an influx of Canadian clients. The same goes for Vietnamese American artist Tammy Nguyen.”

Looking ahead, Koening is excited about several standout lots in the upcoming sales. “We have a fantastic work by Derek Fordjour coming up in our November sales, estimated at $300,000-500,000. Our London auctions on October 10, during Frieze, will feature an incredible piece by Joseph Yeager. I’m also particularly excited about the Sigmar Polke being offered in the evening sale. We haven’t seen many by him in recent years.”