Auction Results: Photographs by Sally Mann, October 7, 2009 @Christie's

Christie's has to be generally pleased with the results of the Sally Mann single owner sale last week: the buy-in rate was on the low side (just over 20%) and the Total Sale Proceeds fell nicely within the estimate range, at just over $660000. This sale seems to have been a case of getting expectations set appropriately all around, and then solidly meeting those expectations.

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

Total Lots: 59
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $583000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $869000
Total Lots Sold: 47
Total Lots Bought In: 12
Buy In %: 20.34%
Total Sale Proceeds: $667625

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

Low Total Lots: 17
Low Sold: 13
Low Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 23.53%
Total Low Estimate: $133000
Total Low Sold: $97875

Mid Total Lots: 42
Mid Sold: 34
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 19.05%
Total Mid Estimate: $736000
Total Mid Sold: $569750

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: NA%
Total High Estimate: $0
Total High Sold: NA

89.36% 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 307 Sally Mann, Candy Cigarette, 1989, at $30000-50000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $68500.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

As an aside, the average price paid for work in this sale was just over $14200 per lot (i.e. the total sale proceeds divided by the total number of lots that actually sold); this is an interesting comparison to the "about $20000" being charged for Mann's new work (here).