Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Auction Results: Ilse Bing, November 16, 2009 @Millon

Even though the results of the major Ilse Bing photography sale at Millon in Paris topped the Total High Estimate for the sale, I'd say that they were likely right in line with the optimistic range of expectations for the auction. Because there was so much material coming into the market all at once, the estimates had to be set low to entice bidders to show up and absorb all the work. Clearly, this strategy worked, as most of the lots that found buyers came in above their high estimate, with plenty of top end surprises.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the 18.5% buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 286
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 322000€
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 470200€
Total Lots Sold: 204
Total Lots Bought In: 82
Buy In %: 28.67%
Total Sale Proceeds: 519089€

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

Low Total Lots: 285
Low Sold: 203
Low Bought In: 82
Buy In %: 28.77%
Total Low Estimate: 450200€
Total Low Sold: 469319€

Mid Total Lots: 1
Mid Sold: 1
Mid Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total Mid Estimate: 20000€
Total Mid Sold: 49770€

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

The top lot by High estimate was lot 56, Ilse Bing, Le Moulin Rouge, Paris, 1931, at 15000-20000€; it was also the top outcome of the sale at 49770€.

As evidence of the low estimates, a staggering 62.25% of the lots that sold had proceeds above the estimate range; only 7.35% sold below the range. There were a total of 37 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate). Since there are far too many to list, I have only added details for the "extreme surprises", where the proceeds were at least triple the high estimate; there were nine of these:

Lot 1, Ilse Bing, Textes, documentation, dessins, collages divers, at 8532€
Lot 2, Ilse Bing, Autoportrait, Frankfurt, 1928, at 14220€
Lot 65, Ilse Bing, The elevated and me, New York, 1936, at 29625€
Lot 117, Ilse Bing, Orgue du Barbarie, Amsterdam, 1933, at 10665€
Lot 161, Ilse Bing, Le dernier 14 juillet avant la guerre, Paris, 1939, at 3318€
Lot 163, Ilse Bing, New York, 1936, at 7110€
Lot 195, Ilse Bing, Ecoliers, 1952, at 2726€
Lot 206, Ilse Bing, Le marchard de glace, Paris, 1933, at 1896€
Lot 210, Ilse Bing, Street cleaner's broom, Paris, 1952, at 8532€

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Millon et Associés
5, Avenue D'Eylau
75116 Paris

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