Auction Results: L'Essential Heinz Hajek-Halke, May 10, 2011 @Sotheby's Paris

I have to admit that when I saw this catalogue I was wondering to myself whether there was really enough demand in the market for a full sale of the photographs of Heinz Hajek-Halke. While individual lots of his work have performed pretty well over the past few years, this sale brought a significant amount of material (much of it on the lower end) into the market all at once. Unfortunately, the results were generally soft, with an overall Buy-In rate over 55% and Total Sale Proceeds that missed the Low end of the range by a decent margin.

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

Total Lots: 78
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 410000€
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 625000€
Total Lots Sold: 35
Total Lots Bought In: 43
Buy In %: 55.13%
Total Sale Proceeds: 291175€

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

Low Total Lots: 56
Low Sold: 22
Low Bought In: 34
Buy In %: 60.71%
Total Low Estimate: 309000€
Total Low Sold: 85250€

Mid Total Lots: 22
Mid Sold: 13
Mid Bought In: 9
Buy In %: 40.91%
Total Mid Estimate: 316000€
Total Mid Sold: 205925€

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 tied between two lots: lot 76, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Sans Titre, 1930-1936, and lot 77, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Sans Titre, 1930-1936, both at 20000-30000€; Lot 76 sold for 29550€  and lot 77 did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 28, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Die Uble Nachrede, 1932, at 39150€.

94.29% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were only two surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 28, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Die Uble Nachrede, 1932, at 39150€ (image at right, bottom, via Sotheby's)
Lot 33, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Warten!, 1928-1932, at 19950€ (image at right, top, via Sotheby's)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Sotheby's
76, Rue Du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris