A Day at Phillips

There is a building on Park Avenue that most people walk past without looking up. The tower above it is 432 Park Avenue — the world's tallest residential skyscraper at the time of its completion, a pencil of glass and concrete that rises 1,396 feet above Midtown Manhattan. But it is the base of that building — the glass cube at street level — that deserves your attention.

That is Phillips. And a day spent inside it is, by any reasonable measure, one of the best days you can have in New York.

The gallery is free to enter. The exhibitions change constantly — sometimes within 24 hours, as the team prepares for a sale. On any given day you might find yourself standing in front of a Basquiat that will sell for eight figures the following evening, or a Yayoi Kusama Infinity Net that has never been seen in public before. There is no velvet rope. There is no audio guide. There is just you, the art, and the faint hum of a room that knows exactly what it is.

Harry Phillips was an innovator who combined business acumen with showmanship, introducing elaborate evening receptions before auctions — a standard practice in the auction business today.

Phillips, About Us

Harry Phillips & the Art of the Room

Harry Phillips founded the auction house in 1796 in Westminster, London. He had been a clerk to James Christie — yes, that Christie — and he left to do things his own way. Within a year, he had held twelve auctions. Within a decade, he had sold the estate of Queen Marie Antoinette and the household effects of Napoleon Bonaparte. He is the only auctioneer in history to have held a sale inside Buckingham Palace.

Napoleon and Beau Brummell were among his early patrons. The man had taste, connections, and the confidence to charge for both. He also invented the pre-auction evening reception — the champagne, the viewing, the conversation before the gavel falls — which every auction house in the world now copies. Harry Phillips did it first.

The business passed through his son and successors for the better part of two centuries, expanding into fine art, furniture, and estate collections by the 1970s. In 1999, Bernard Arnault of LVMH acquired the company and merged it with the private dealers Simon de Pury and Daniela Luxembourg — a move that repositioned Phillips as the auction house for contemporary art, design, and photography. De Pury, a Swiss-born auctioneer of considerable charisma, brought a new energy to the saleroom. The paddle was no longer just a financial instrument. It was a statement.

In 2008, the Mercury Group — a Russian luxury retail conglomerate — acquired a majority stake. By 2012, the acquisition was complete, and Phillips moved uptown from Chelsea. In October 2014, the London headquarters opened at 30 Berkeley Square in Mayfair. In 2021, the New York headquarters moved to 432 Park Avenue. In 2023, the first purpose-built auction space in Hong Kong opened at West Kowloon. The company will celebrate its 230th anniversary in 2026.

The Space: 432 Park Avenue

The New York headquarters was designed by studioMDA — the same firm that has designed over 250 art fair booths and multiple museums worldwide. The brief was unusual: build something that functions like an auction house, feels like a museum, and looks like nothing else on Park Avenue.

The answer was to remove the most valuable floor area at the corner of 56th Street and Park Avenue — to open the ground level to the street and let passersby look down into a sunken mezzanine, and beyond it into the main auction room below. The grand auction room at 432 Park Avenue is the only one in Manhattan visible from the street. On auction nights, you can stand on the pavement and watch the paddles rise.

The 35,000 square feet of gallery space is divided into three main zones, each with well-proportioned rooms that can be further subdivided within 24 hours. The ceiling lighting system and moveable walls turn the space into a highly versatile gallery. The wood floors and museum-grade lighting elevate it. The escalators descend slowly, giving you time to take in the full sweep of the room before you reach the art.

The sunken mezzanine steps become seating during auctions, lectures, and events — an urban piazza, or the Spanish Steps, reimagined for the art market. It is one of the most thoughtfully designed public spaces in New York. And it is free to enter.

The Art: What Phillips Sells

Phillips is not Christie's. It is not Sotheby's. It does not pretend to be. Where those houses cover everything from Old Masters to furniture to wine, Phillips has made a deliberate choice: modern and contemporary art, design, photographs, editions, watches, and jewels. The 20th and 21st centuries. The things that are still alive.

In May 2022, Phillips held the most successful auction in company history. Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled from 1982 led the sale at $85 million — the artist's third-highest price at auction. Yayoi Kusama's early Infinity Net painting sold for a record $10.5 million. Women accounted for nearly half the lots. Total sales reached $225 million in a single evening. The room at 432 Park Avenue was full.

The artists Phillips champions are the ones who matter now: Basquiat, Kusama, Banksy, Gerhard Richter, Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Zeng Fanzhi. The watches department — Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo — is the global market leader for collectible timepieces. The Perpetual platform offers a boutique experience for serious collectors. Dropshop, launched in 2023, offers limited-edition primary market releases directly from artists.

You do not need to be a buyer to walk in. The pre-sale exhibitions are open to the public, free of charge, in the days before every auction. This is the best time to visit: the rooms are hung with extraordinary works, the lighting is perfect, and the energy of an impending sale gives everything a particular intensity. You are looking at art that is about to change hands. That knowledge changes how you look at it.

The grand auction room at 432 Park Avenue is the only one in Manhattan visible from the street. On auction nights, you can stand on the pavement and watch the paddles rise.

Just Gerald, on the Phillips New York experience

London: 30 Berkeley Square

The European headquarters opened in October 2014 at 30 Berkeley Square in Mayfair — one of the most prestigious addresses in London. The space was designed as part of the Mercury Group's broader redevelopment of the building, with new gallery rooms and a saleroom created specifically for Phillips.

Berkeley Square is the kind of address that requires no explanation. It is Mayfair. It is the heart of the London art market — Christie's is on King Street, Sotheby's is on New Bond Street, and now Phillips is on Berkeley Square. The gallery is state-of-the-art, the saleroom is elegant, and the neighbourhood rewards a full afternoon: the Ritz is a five-minute walk, the Royal Academy is ten minutes, and the Wolseley is just around the corner if you need to debrief over a proper lunch.

Where to Find Phillips

Phillips also has representative offices in Geneva, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Paris, Milan, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, and Tokyo. Pre-sale exhibitions are free to the public at all major locations. Check phillips.com/calendar for upcoming sales and viewing dates.

How to Have the Best Day at Phillips

Practical Information