Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Auction Results: Photographs, New York, March 30, 2009 @Sotheby's

Sotheby's opened the spring 2009 auction season for photographs yesterday, after a busy week here in New York with the AIPAD show in town. The results for this sale were basically in line with the general trend since last Fall (when the economic crisis began to significantly impact the art markets), including the sales this past February: total proceeds well under the total Low estimate, with buy-in rates in the 30s and 40s. The major difference from the recent past is the sharp reduction in the total number of lots consigned this spring, and a general erosion in quality of material, together leading to the lower total proceeds numbers. The summary statistics are below:

Total Lots: 186
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $3042000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $4488000

Total Lots Sold: 118
Total Lots Bought In: 68
Buy In %: 36.56%
Total Sale Proceeds: $2384690

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

Low Total Lots: 55
Low Sold: 38
Low Bought In: 17
Buy In %: 30.91%
Total Low Estimate: $425000
Total Low Sold: $233440

Mid Total Lots: 114
Mid Sold: 68
Mid Bought In: 46
Buy In %: 40.35%
Total Mid Estimate: $2163000
Total Mid Sold: $1060000

High Total Lots: 17
High Sold: 12
High Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 29.41%
Total High Estimate: $1900000
Total High Sold: $1091250

76.27% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There was only one surprise (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) in this sale: lot 173, Newly Occupied Tract Houses, Colorado Springs, 1968 by Robert Adams at $20000.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Sotheby's
1334 York Avenue at 72nd St
New York, NY 10021

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