Auction Results: Carte Blanche and Contemporary Art, Parts I and II, November 8 and 9, 2010 @Phillips

Phillips opened the Fall Contemporary Art season in New York last week with a photographic bang, selling Cindy Sherman's Untitled #153 for $2770500, a new record for the artist and the highest price achieved for a photograph at auction so far in 2010. A second Sherman more than doubled its high estimate to add fuel to the fire. Add a few more positive surprises, and the Total Sale Proceeds for photography covered the high estimate with room to spare.

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

Total Lots: 88

Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $5344500

Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $7804500

Total Lots Sold: 61

Total Lots Bought In: 27

Buy In %: 30.68%

Total Sale Proceeds: $7939875

.

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

Low Total Lots: 29

Low Sold: 20

Low Bought In: 9

Buy In %: 31.03%

Total Low Estimate: $194500

Total Low Sold: $164500

.

Mid Total Lots: 46

Mid Sold: 30

Mid Bought In: 16

Buy In %: 34.78%

Total Mid Estimate: $1100000

Total Mid Sold: $640625

.

High Total Lots: 13

High Sold: 11

High Bought In: 2

Buy In %: 15.38%

Total High Estimate: $6510000

Total High Sold: $7134750

.

The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 14, Cindy Sherman, Untitled #153, 1985, at $2000000-3000000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $2770500. (Image at right, top, via Phillips.)
.

88.52% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 7 surprises in these sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 17, Thomas Schütte, Old Friends, 1993, at $962500 (image at right, middle, via Phillips)

Lot 19, Cindy Sherman, Untitled #420, 2004, at $1426500

Lot 33, Matthew Day Jackson, The Lower 48, 2006, at $410500

Lot 275, Roe Ethridge, Cove Corners, Wellfleet, MA, 2005, at $20000

Lot 276, Sharon Core, Boston Creams, 2004, at $16250 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips)

Lot 445, Dash Snow, Untitled (Why Grow Old), 2007, at $16875

Lot 523, Frank Thiel, Stadt 10/04 (Berlin), 2000, at $35000

.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here (Carte Blanche), here (Part I) and here (Part II).

Phillips De Pury & Company

450 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022

and

450 West 15th Street
New York, NY 10011