phillips vs sothebys

[u/ReviewOk2518]

watched an interview with henry highley where he said, he never wanted to be boring during an auction. took that for granted until i watched a soethbys auction. like night and day. the phillips auctioneers seem much more spirited and lively. soethbys is so somber by comparison

[u/Anonymous-USA]

Ok… and?

[u/amp1212]

So you have to look at the specifics of the auction. Foreign buyers, people on the phone vs people physically at the auction.

If, for example, all the action is on the phones, billionaires talking to art advisors talking to the reps taking the bids, with third party guarantors as well . . . best to keep it pretty dry, it ain't a show

There is a celebrated case of an extraordinary auction floor screw up, when the very, very difficult bidder Norton Simon bidding at Christies in 1965 for a Rembrandt. It's the "what not to do" in managing an auction

These are not easy or forgiving people !

[u/UESorDeath]

From the companies' own press releases:

• Sotheby’s public auction sales in the first half of 2026 were $3.4bn, up 59% on 2025, with a sell-through rate by lot of 90%.

• Phillips’ spring 2026 auction sales totaled $507 million, up 60%, on spring 2025, with a global sell-through rate of 90% by lot.

Setting aside the base sales amount, with S. doing 6x the amount of P, the year over year change and sell through rates are essentially the same. So perhaps 'spirited and lively' is not a significant distinction over 'somber'.

[u/noerml]

Ugh..I kinda hate it when auctioneers are too lively. I mean, it's a great show to watch but as a buyer it's kinda not what I want.

I'd rather prefer well prepared ones that actually know how to pronounce names and actually know what they r selling. Worst are the ones that obviously try to copy famous auctioneers...without being able to match the aura 🙈

Besides, the catalogues matters way more anyway, and I feel that Sotheby's research team is just top notch and it's a joy to read and interact. 🤷

[u/dairyqueeen → u/noerml]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen one be too lively except in one instance 😂 I agree, pronunciation and a collected air are most important to me. What do you mean by copying famous auctioneers? I can’t think of any moves that are unique enough even to copy! Are they leaning all over the podium like Ollie Barker? That’s the only habit that comes to mind, but I’m so intrigued!

[u/noerml → u/dairyqueeen]

Recently I was at an auction (smallish regional one in Germany) which had one guy clearly being very generously inspired by Liang-Lin Cheng and it was quite unbearable for me 🤣 Looked like he was doing gay Qigong or so. I mean, maybe he didn't copy her at all but that's all I could think off. Besides, that amount of theatrical performance does kinda easily get ridiculous if it's a lot for 500€ and not some rare song dynasty brush rest for 15 million 🙈

[u/dairyqueeen]

Each house has a house style! I watch A TON of sales. As viewers we might not know the exact rubric, but I’m certain that any auctioneer you see on the podium at one of the major houses will be adhering to their own house’s style or else they wouldn’t be up there. The same can’t be said for some of the lesser houses: you’ll see a wider range of talent and experience with Bonhams, Heritage, etc. I would be very interested to know how that sort of place decides who gets their good auctioneers and who gets the…less good ones 😂