Phillips closed out its London October sales with a clean sweep on the evening of October 15, selling all 20 lots in its modern and contemporary evening auction for a combined £14.8 million, or about $19.6 million. The result, reported on October 16, set new auction benchmarks for two younger contemporary names.

The night's top lot was Gerhard Richter's 1983 abstraction "Mathis," consigned from the collection of French collector Marcel Brient, which brought $7.6 million against a pre-sale expectation of $8 to $10 million. The canvas was making its second appearance at Phillips after being pulled from a sale three years ago. For context, Richter's standing auction record sits at $46.3 million for another 1980s abstraction, according to the Artnet Price Database.

The second headline lot was a Banksy making its auction debut: "Keep Ou T" (2019), a repurposed European Union arrivals gate whose shutters carry the words "KEEP OU" while a rat uses the missing T to break a padlock at the bottom. Created after the Brexit referendum and first shown at the Royal Academy in London in 2019, it sold for $2.1 million, within estimate.

The liveliest bidding clustered around the contemporary end of the room. Eva Helene Pade's "Yellow Nights" (2020) reached $222,550, more than three times its high estimate, while Megan Rooney's "Blue departure" (2021) made $325,270, five times its low estimate. Joseph Yaeger's "Once, always" (2023) drew the longest contest, selling to a telephone bidder for $855,970 and setting an artist record. Dali's early "El torrent de la Jorneta" (1923) made the same figure, just above its high estimate, and Hockney's "Red Leather Chair" (2003) also landed at $855,970, within estimate. James Turrell's 2008 LED work "Ein Feshkha" went to a California buyer for $650,540.

Three further works from the 22-piece Dartington Hall Collection — paintings by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood — were bought before the sale in private deals arranged by Phillips. The whole group has now been acquired for the nation by The Box in Plymouth and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, backed by a $1.08 million Art Fund grant.