Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Auction Results: Contemporary Art, June 29, 2009 @Phillips London

Phillips had its Day and Evening Contemporary Art sales in London yesterday, and except for the top lot (Richard Prince's Spiritual America IV, which did not sell), the photography performed quite well. Had this image found a buyer, the sale results for the photo lots would have been solidly within their total pre-sale estimate range; as it was however, since the Prince had such a large price tag, its failure to sell dampened the overall photo proceeds significantly.

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

Total Lots: 35
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £885500
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1283500

Total Lots Sold: 29
Total Lots Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 17.14%
Total Sale Proceeds: £636275

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

Low Total Lots: 5
Low Sold: 3
Low Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 40.00%
Total Low Estimate: £19500
Total Low Sold: £13125

Mid Total Lots: 24
Mid Sold: 21
Mid Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 12.50%
Total Mid Estimate: £234000
Total Mid Sold: £257500

High Total Lots: 6
High Sold: 5
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 16.67%
Total High Estimate: £1030000
Total High Sold: £365650

79.31% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were four surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 202, Ramin Haerizadeh, Men of Allah #1, 2007, at £8125
Lot 214, Philip-Lorca DiCorcia, New York, 1998, at £13125
Lot 222, Roni Horn, Untitled (Kitty Cat), 2000, at £31250
Lot 229, Axel Hutte, Turnagain Arm, 1999, at £18750

The top lot by High estimate (across the two sales) was lot 12, Richard Prince, Spiritual America IV, 2005, but the work did not sell, against an estimate of £400000-600000. The top outcome (using a broad definition of photography) was lot 7, Mario Merz, Senza titolo (Una somma reale è una somma di gente), 1972, at £217250.

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

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

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