The Global Auction Calendar with Phillips CEO Stephen Brooks

The global auction and art fair calendar hardly seems like the fascinating subject that it really is. The art world still operates on a schedule largely established decades ago. The disruption of the global pandemic seemed to offer an opportunity to reshape those assumptions. Asia has become more important and art fairs are proliferating from Seoul to Los Angeles and Paris. Nevertheless, 2022 saw the old auction calendar re-emerge. Judging by the very strong numbers posted last year, sales haven’t suffered. So what will happen next? To answer that question, I spoke to Phillips CEO Stephen Brooks. Phillips is the first to open a dedicated Hong Kong headquarters. His rivals will have their own premises next year. That means there is likely to be an auction season twice a year in Hong Kong either in 2024 or sometime thereafter just as there is in New York and London. How that will fit into the calendar and how auction houses view the growing number of sales opportunities is the subject of our conversation. I hope you enjoy it.