Phillips closed its Frieze-week London evening sale of modern and contemporary art on Thursday, 15 October, with a steady result: £14.8 million ($19.6 million), and every one of the 20 offered lots found a buyer. Three further lots had been pulled beforehand after private deals. According to artnet, flashes of excitement punctured an otherwise measured sale.

The top lot was Gerhard Richter's 'Mathis', a 1983 abstraction alive with yellow, red and blue, consigned from French collector Marcel Brient's collection. It sold for $7.6 million, just under its $8–10 million estimate; Phillips had first offered it three years ago, only to withdraw it. Afterwards deputy chairwoman Olivia Thornton said fresh works from private, recognisable collections continue to drive the market's strongest interest.

Banksy's 'Keep Ou T' (2019) made its auction debut at $2.1 million, within estimate after quiet bidding. The work repurposes an EU arrivals gate, its shutters stencilled 'KEEP OU' while a rat uses the missing 'T' to smash a padlock — a wry Brexit-referendum-era artefact unveiled at the Royal Academy in 2019.

The liveliest bidding was for younger artists. Eva Helene Pade's 'Yellow Nights' (2020) opened the sale at $222,550 — over three times its high estimate and a new auction record — while Megan Rooney's 'Blue departure' (2021) quintupled its low estimate to realise $325,270. Most competitive was Joseph Yaeger's 'Once, always' (2023), which beat its estimate and the artist's record to sell for $855,970 to a bidder in India.

Older lots held: an early Salvador Dalí nudged above its high estimate at $855,970; 'Red Leather Chair' (2003), one of three Hockneys offered, also reached $855,970; and James Turrell's 'Ein Feshkha' (2008) sold within estimate for $650,540 to a California buyer. Three British modernist works from the Dartington Hall Trust sold privately before the sale, and the collection's remaining 22 pieces were purchased for the nation by The Box in Plymouth and Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum, supported by a $1.08 million Art Fund grant. Phillips' day sale follows on Saturday.