Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Auction Results: Contemporary Art, June 25 and 26, 2009 @Sotheby's London

The London Contemporary Art season began last week, with Sotheby's up first with Evening and Day sales. The photography in the two sales performed admirably, with 22 of the 23 photo lots selling (nearly "white glove", at least for the photography lots), and the total proceeds falling well within the pre-sale estimate range for these particular lots. It was a careful and measured positive outcome.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 23
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £1072000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1567000

Total Lots Sold: 22
Total Lots Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 4.35%
Total Sale Proceeds: £1485475

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

Low Total Lots: 1
Low Sold: 1
Low Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total Low Estimate: £5000
Total Low Sold: £16250

Mid Total Lots: 13
Mid Sold: 12
Mid Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 7.69%
Total Mid Estimate: £207000
Total Mid Sold: £225575

High Total Lots: 9
High Sold: 9
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total High Estimate: £1355000
Total High Sold: £1243650

95.45% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were only two surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 234, Gerhard Richter, 15.2.89, at £32450
Lot 293, Jenny Saville, Closed Contact #10, 1995, at £16250

The top lot by High estimate (across the two sales) was lot 10, Andreas Gursky, Dubai World II, which sold for £445250 against an estimate of £400000-600000.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Sotheby's
34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA

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