Thursday, October 1, 2009

Auction Results: Contemporary Art, September 24, 2009 @Sotheby's

The contemporary photography in Sotheby's first sale of the New York season delivered average if uninspiring results, with a buy-in rate creeping up a bit higher than might have been expected and Total Sale Proceeds just covering the total Low estimate. If the two lots that seemed to have no reserve and sold for pennies on the dollar were included as buy-ins, the numbers would have looked even weaker. And Sotheby's should thank Ruud Van Empel, who single handedly delivered a quarter of the total proceeds on one lot.

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

Total Lots: 34
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $402000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $573000
Total Lots Sold: 24
Total Lots Bought In: 10
Buy In %: 29.41%
Total Sale Proceeds: $422375

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

Low Total Lots: 20
Low Sold: 15
Low Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 25.00%
Total Low Estimate: $150000
Total Low Sold: $106500

Mid Total Lots: 12
Mid Sold: 7
Mid Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 41.67%
Total Mid Estimate: $288000
Total Mid Sold: $149375

High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total High Estimate: $135000
Total High Sold: $166500

A generally soft 70.83% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were no surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate).

The top lot by High estimate was Lot 284, Wang Qingsong, Romantique, 2003, with an estimate of $50000-70000; it sold for $50000. The top outcome of the sale was Lot 249, Ruud Van Empel, World #17, 2006, with an estimate of $45000-65000; it sold for $116500.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Sotheby's
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021

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