Auction: Contemporary Art Including Arab & Iranian Art, October 16, 2009 @Sotheby's London

Sotheby's is first up in the Contemporary Art auction season in London, timed to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair in Regent's Park (here). Overall, the selection of contemporary photography in this sale isn't particularly inspiring, although many of the usual contemporary names can be found. There are total of 39 photography lots on offer, with a Total High Estimate of £1080000. (Catalog cover at right, via Sotheby's.)

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 2
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £8000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 24
Total Mid Estimate: £342000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 13
Total High Estimate: £730000

The top lots by High estimate are lot 114, Gilbert & George, Ginkgoed, 2005, and lot 126, Rashid Rana, Red Carpet-3, 2007, both at £80000-120000.

Here is a short list of the photographers who are represented by more than one lot in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Hiroshi Sugimoto (4)
Rineke Dijkstra (2)
Shirin Neshat (2)
Richard Prince (2)

While there weren't any great fits for our collection in this sale, I recently saw another print from Rashid Rana's Red Carpet series at the show of Pakistani Art now on view at the Asia Society (review coming later this week), and I'll admit it was pretty spectacular.

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Contemporary Art Including Arab & Iranian Art
October 16th

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