Auction Results: BRIC, April 23 and 24, 2010 @Phillips London

Phillips' BRIC themed sale took place last week in London, and while the buy-in rate for photography was over 45% and the total sale proceeds from the photo lots missed the estimate range by a wide margin, there was a silver lining of sorts: this sale delivered the highest photo proceeds for Phillips of all of its themed sales so far this year.

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

Total Lots: 147
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £734600
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1067100
Total Lots Sold: 79
Total Lots Bought In: 68
Buy In %: 46.26%
Total Sale Proceeds: £504438

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

Low Total Lots: 95
Low Sold: 46
Low Bought In: 49
Buy In %: 51.58%
Total Low Estimate: £279100
Total Low Sold: £136563

Mid Total Lots: 44
Mid Sold: 31
Mid Bought In: 13
Buy In %: 29.55%
Total Mid Estimate: £478000
Total Mid Sold: £305625

High Total Lots: 8
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 75.00%
Total High Estimate: £310000
Total High Sold: £62250

The top lot by High estimate was lot 302, AES+F, The Bridge, 2007, at £40000-60000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 72, Wang Qingsong, Dormitory, 2005, at £37250. (Image at right, via Phillips.)

79.75% of the lots that sold had proceeds above or in the estimate range. There were a total of five surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 86, Alex Guofeng Cao, Marilyn as Brigitte Bardot, 2009, at £5000
Lot 303, Dmitri Baldermans, Yuri Gagarin with family, 1961, at £6875
Lot 310, Boris Mikhailov, Untitled, from Case History Series, 1997-1998, at £15000
Lot 342, Sebastiao Salgado, Gold mine, Serra Pelada, Brazil (figure eight), 1985/Later, at £9375
Lot 343, Sebastiao Salgado, Gold mine, Serra Pelada, Brazil, 1996/Later, at £7500

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB