Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Auction Results Fall 2008: Christie's South Kensington and Villa Grisebach

There were two more photography sales during the short Thanksgiving week: Christie’s South Kensington (London) and Villa Grisebach (Berlin). The results are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Christie’s South Kensington

Total Lots: 168
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 363400 Pounds
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 535000 Pounds

Total Lots Sold: 119
Total Lots Bought In: 49
Buy In %: 29.17%
Total Sale Proceeds: 348727 Pounds

Of all the various owner sales this season, this sale was closest to its pre-sale Low estimate in terms of overall proceeds, with a surprisingly low buy-in rate (bested only by the single owner Eggleston and Jammes sales earlier in the fall).

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 146
Low Sold: 107
Low Bought In: 39
Buy In %: 26.71%
Total Low Estimate: 393000 Pounds
Total Low Sold: 274227 Pounds

Mid Total Lots: 22
Mid Sold: 12
Mid Bought In: 10
Buy In %: 45.45%
Total Mid Estimate: 142000 Pounds
Total Mid Sold: 74500 Pounds

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: NA
Total High Estimate: 0
Total High Sold: 0

Given a mixed bag of less than amazing material (from our perspective), this sale performed unexpectedly well.

Villa Grisebach

Total Lots: 241
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 583300 Euros
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 822200 Euros

Total Lots Sold: 140
Total Lots Bought In: 101
Buy In %: 41.91%
Total Sale Proceeds: 453805 Euros

Villa Grisebach is the first of the German auction houses to have its photography sale this season, so we don’t yet have a pattern for what is happening in that micro market. In the context of the wider US and London markets, this sale performed right in line with the prevailing somber mood.

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 223
Low Sold: 131
Low Bought In: 92
Buy In %: 41.26%
Total Low Estimate: 545200 Euros
Total Low Sold: 335995 Euros

Mid Total Lots: 16
Mid Sold: 8
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total Mid Estimate: 167000 Euros
Total Mid Sold: 70210 Euros

High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 1
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total High Estimate: 110000 Euros
Total High Sold: 47600 Euros

While there was weakness across the board, this sale had a few more positive outliers (where the realized price was meaningfully higher than the high estimate) than most of the other sales, and these lots helped raise the totals and back fill for those lots that didn’t sell.

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