Jewelry Auctions Are Booming, So Phillips Is Adding a Major New Sale in Geneva
Carol Besler
Thu, July 27, 2023
Its New York auction in June totaled $4.2 million. Now, it’s heading to the Swiss city in November.
Jewelry auctions are having a good year so far. According to The Mercury Project, a Swiss firm that monitors jewelry and watch sales at auction, sales of jewelry at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Phillips, Antiquorum and Bonhams for the first half of 2023 increased by 45 percent (while watch sales declined by 18 percent). Therefore, It is no surprise that Phillips has announced it will start holding jewelry auctions in Geneva, starting this November, thus adding Europe to its jewelry sale territories.
Top right – (Grogan) Nephrite, mother-of-pearl, onyx, enamel, and diamond desk timepiece circa 1925
Phillips already auctions jewelry in New York and Hong Kong, where it achieved historic annual sales totals in 2021 and 2022, and clocked an impressive 185 percent increase in value during fall 2022 compared with spring 2022. The auction house has been beefing up its jewelry department in recent years, and last May appointed Benoit Repellin as its new worldwide head of jewelry. Repellin joined Phillips a year ago as head of jewelry, Europe. Prior to that, he spent nearly 10 years at Sotheby’s, where he was eventually director and head of Magnificent Jewels sales. He has conducted many jewelry auctions in Europe and will work with collectors and dealers worldwide to fortify the offerings at Phillips.
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