Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Auction Results: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, November 11 and 12, 2009 @Sotheby's

Following on the heels of the solid outing at Christie's the previous day, the market for contemporary photography stayed strong once again in the two Contemporary Art sales at Sotheby's. The Total Sale Proceeds for photography across the Evening and Day auctions were well above the midpoint of the range, with a Buy-In Rate slightly higher than the day before (just under 22%).

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

Total Lots: 55
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $2986000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $4139000
Total Lots Sold: 43
Total Lots Bought In: 12
Buy In %: 21.82%
Total Sale Proceeds: $3737250

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

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

Mid Total Lots: 32
Mid Sold: 26
Mid Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 18.75%
Total Mid Estimate: $859000
Total Mid Sold: $800500

High Total Lots: 23
High Sold: 17
High Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 26.09%
Total High Estimate: $3280000
Total High Sold: $2936750

80.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were five surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 306 Vik Muniz, After Gerhard Richter (from Pictures of Color), 2001, at $80500
Lot 309 Vik Muniz, The Best of Life Portfolio, 1989/1995, at $182500
Lot 315 Candida Hofer, Milchhof Nurnberg, 1999, at $37500
Lot 425 Elger Esser, Gravina, 1999, at $62500
Lot 426 Thomas Struth, Landschaft No. 28, 1993, at $30000

The top lot by High estimate was lot 40, John Baldessari, Life's Balance, 1986, at $300000-400000; it sold for $542500. The top outcome of the sale was lot 303, John Baldessari, Two Compositions (Dynamic/Static; Red/Green), 1990, at $554500.

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

Sotheby's
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021

No comments: