Phillips’s push to strengthen its brand under its new chief executive officer passed an important test as the auction house’s hybrid sale of 20th century and contemporary art tallied $66.9 million.
The sale on Sunday in New York cleared its low estimate of $64.4 million, and was a 28.7 percent increase over the same event last year. Willem De Kooning’s 5-foot-tall abstract painting with swirling white, yellow and red brushstrokes was the most expensive, fetching $11.4 million, just above its low estimate of $10 million. Of the 51 lots offered, 82 percent sold.
