Auction Results: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, June 26 and 27, 2013 @Sotheby's London

Andreas Gursky easily carried the photographic load at Sotheby's Contemporary Art auctions in London last week. His five stock exchange images in the Evening sale brought in just under £5.5M in aggregate, and with the help of the Struth Pantheon image at roughly £800K, basically made the rest of the results irrelevant. Even with an overall Buy-In rate near 35%, the Total Sale Proceeds still soared over the pre-sale high estimate.

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

Total Photography Lots: 43
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £3961000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £5503000
Total Lots Sold: 28
Total Lots Bought In: 15
Buy In %: 34.88%
Total Sale Proceeds: £7171475

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: 22
Mid Sold: 14
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 36.36%
Total Mid Estimate: £343000
Total Mid Sold: £250625

High Total Lots: 21
High Sold: 14
High Bought In: 7
Buy In %: 33.33%
Total High Estimate: £5160000
Total High Sold: £6920850

The top lot by High estimate was lot 28, Andreas Gursky, Chicago Board of Trade, 1997, estimated at £700000-900000; it sold for £1538500. The top outcome of the two sales was lot 26, Andreas Gursky, Chicago Board of Trade III, 1999-2009, estimated at £600000-800000, sold at £2154500 (image at right, top, via Sotheby's).

100.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were four surprises in these sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 26, Andreas Gursky, Chicago Board of Trade III, 1999-2009, estimated at £600000-800000, sold at £2154500
Lot 437, Mona Hatoum, Performance Still, 1985-1995, estimated at £6000-8000, sold at £20000 (image at right, middle, via Sotheby's)
Lot 447, Thomas Struth. Jiangxi Zhong Lu, Shanghai, 1996, estimated at £12000-18000, sold at £40000
Lot 448, Thomas Struth, Nanjing Xi Lu 2, Shanghai, 2002, estimated at £18000-25000, sold at £57500 (image at right, bottom, via Sotheby's)

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

Sotheby's
34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA

Auction Results: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, June 25 and 26, 2013 @Christie's London

The results for the photography included in Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day sales in London last week were driven down by the failure of the two top photo lots to find buyers. With an overall Buy-In rate under 14%, we might have expected the Total Sale Proceeds to cover the top end of the range; as it was, they fell meaningfully below the low end.

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

Total Lots: 22
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £734000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1068000
Total Lots Sold: 19
Total Lots Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 13.64%
Total Sale Proceeds: £552500

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

Low Total Lots: 1
Low Sold: 1
Low Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total Low Estimate: £5000
Total Low Sold: £9375

Mid Total Lots: 14
Mid Sold: 13
Mid Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 7.14%
Total Mid Estimate: £218000
Total Mid Sold: £216125

High Total Lots: 7
High Sold: 5
High Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 28.57%
Total High Estimate: £845000
Total High Sold: £327000

The top lot by High estimate was lot 21, Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Our prices are insane!), 1997, at £200000-300000; it did not sell. The top photography outcome of the two sales was lot 251, Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your life is a perpetual insomnia!), 1984, estimated at £60000-80000, sold at £127875 (image at right, top, via Christie's).

89.47% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There was only one surprise in these sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 285, Andreas Gursky, Gelsenkirchen, Ratingen, Moers, 1988, estimated at £8000-12000, sold at £27500 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's)

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

Christie's
8 King Street, St. James's
London SW1Y 6QT

Auctions: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, June 26 and 27, 2013 @Sotheby's London

Five stock exchange images by Andreas Gursky headline Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening and Day sales in London this week; Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuwait, and a pair from Chicago are a run of five consecutive lots in the evening auction. With the help of their big ticket estimates, there's quite a bit of photo value on the line. Overall, there are a total of 43 photography lots available across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate of £5503000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 0
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): NA

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 22
Total Mid Estimate: £343000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 21
Total High Estimate: £5160000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 28, Andreas Gursky, Chicago Board of Trade, 1997, at £700000-900000. (Image at right, top, via Sotheby's.)

Here is a list of the photographers who are represented by more than one lot in the two sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):
Andreas Gursky (7)
Richard Prince (4)
Candida Höfer (3)
Thomas Struth (3)
Gabriel Orozco (2)
Wolfgang Tillmans (2)

Other lots of interest include lot 413, Martin Kippenberger, We don't have problems...30, 1989, at £20000-30000 (at right, middle) and lot 446, Piotr Uklański, Untitled (Foliage), 2003, at £12000-18000 (at right, bottom, both images via Sotheby's).

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Contemporary Art Evening
June 26th

Contemporary Art Day
June 27th

Sotheby's
34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA

Auction Results: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, May 16 and 17, 2013 @Phillips New York

The photography buried in Phillips' two Contemporary Art sales last week provided ample proof that if the available works are well edited and the Buy-In rate can be kept low, the overall results are usually plenty successful. In this case, less than 9% of the photographs on offer failed to find buyers, driving the Total Sale Proceeds over the top of aggregate pre-sale high estimate.

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

Total Lots: 34
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $2680000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $3980000
Total Lots Sold: 31
Total Lots Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 8.82%
Total Sale Proceeds: $4073250

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: 19
Mid Sold: 18
Mid Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 5.26%
Total Mid Estimate: $480000
Total Mid Sold: $568750

High Total Lots: 15
High Sold: 13
High Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 13.33%
Total High Estimate: $3500000
Total High Sold: $3504500

The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 7, Andreas Gursky, Rhein, 1996, estimated at $1000000-1500000; it was also the top outcome of the sales at 1925000

82.35% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range, and there were a total of 3 surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 194, Andreas Gursky, Untitled 1 (Carpet), 1993, estimated at $60000-80000, sold at $173000 (image at right, top, via Phillips)
Lot 210, Vik Muniz, Valentine, The Fastest from The Sugar Children, 1996, estimated at $20000-25000, sold at $81250 (image at right, middle, via Phillips)
Lot 252, Ruud van Empel, World #16, 2006, estimated at $12000-18000, sold at $43750 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips)

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

Phillips
450 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Auctions: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, May 16 and 17, 2013 @Phillips New York

Phillips' finishes up the Spring Contemporary Art season  in New York with its Evening and Day sales next Thursday and Friday. Gursky, Prince, and Gilbert & George account for the top photographic lots, with a few fresher names at lower prices. All in, there are a total of 34 photographs available across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate for photography of $3980000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 0
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $0

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 19
Total Mid Estimate: $480000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 15
Total High Estimate: $3500000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 7, Andreas Gursky, Rhein, 1996, estimated at $1000000-1500000 (image at right, top, via Phillips).

Here's the very short list of photographers represented by three or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses)

Andreas Gursky (4)
Vik Muniz (3)

Other works of interest include lot 215, Sterling Ruby, Spectrum Series: Trunk, 2003, estimated at $20000-30000 (image at right middle, via Phillips), and lot 226, Elad Lassry, Wall, 2008, estimated at $8000-12000 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips).

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Contemporary Art Evening
May 16th

Contemporary Art Day
May 17th

Phillips
450 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Auctions: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening, Morning, and Afternoon Sales, May 15 and 16, 2013 @Christie's New York

Christie's bats second in the Spring Contemporary Art season, with a series of three sales next week. Gursky, Sherman, Prince, Wall, and Baldessari hold the top slots. Overall, there are a total of 57 lots of photography available in the three sales, with a Total High Estimate for photography of $7340000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 0
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $0

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 28
Total Mid Estimate: $900000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 29
Total High Estimate: $6440000

The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 3, Andreas Gursky, Klitschko, 1999, estimated at $800000-1000000 (image at right, top, via Christie's.)

Here's the complete list of photographers represented by three or more lots in the sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Cindy Sherman (7)
Vik Muniz (6)
Louise Lawler (4)
Barbara Kruger (3)
Richard Prince (3)
Thomas Struth (3)

Other photographs of interest include lot 236, Gerhard Richter, Untitled, 1992, estimated at $35000-45000 (image at right, middle, via Christie's) and lot 406, Rodney Graham, Welsh Oak #1-7, 1998, estimated at $90000-150000 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's).

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening), here (Morning), and here (Afternoon).

Post-War and Contemporary Art (Evening)
May 15th

Post-War and Contemporary Art (Morning)
May 16th

Post-War and Contemporary Art (Afternoon)
May 16th

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Auction: First Open, March 8, 2013 @Christie's New York

Christie's has the final chance for the auction houses to separate Armory week collectors from their savings with its First Open sale coming up on Friday. Led by six works from Cindy Sherman, it's a mid range assortment with plenty of well known names. Overall, there are a total of 48 lots of photography available in the sale, with a total High estimate for photography of $1438500.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 15
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $103500

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 26
Total Mid Estimate: $595000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 7
Total High Estimate: $740000

The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 90, Andreas Gursky, Atlanta, 1996, estimated at $250000-350000 (image at right, top.)

Here's the complete list of photographers represented by two or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Cindy Sherman (6)
Vik Muniz (5)
Nan Goldin (4)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (3)
Laurie Simmons (2)
Thomas Struth (2)
Sturtevant (2)
Zhang Huan (2)

Other lots of interest include lot 169, Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 2010-2012, estimated at $50000-70000 (image at right, middle) and lot 79, Laurie Simmons, Red Library II, 1983, estimated at $5000-7000 (image at right, bottom, all via Christie's.)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

First Open
March 8th

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Auctions: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, February 12 and 13, 2013 @Sotheby's London

Sotheby's kicks off the 2013 Spring Contemporary Art season with Evening and Day sales next week in London. The top photography lots include works by Gursky, Prince, and Gilbert & George. Overall, there are a total of 34 photography lots available across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate of £1901000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 0
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): NA

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 21
Total Mid Estimate: £321000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 13
Total High Estimate: £1580000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 37, Andreas Gursky, Singapore Börse, 1997, at £350000-550000. (Image at right, top, via Sotheby's.)

Here is a list of the photographers who are represented by more than one lot in the two sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Candida Höfer (3)
Thomas Ruff (3)
Gilbert & George (2)
Andreas Gursky (2)
David LaChapelle (2)
Cindy Sherman (2)

Other lots of interest include lot 294, Richard Prince, Untitled (Pens), 1979, at £120000-180000 (at right, middle) and lot 228, Olafur Eliasson, 360° Crystal Palace, 2007, at £60000-80000 (at right, bottom, both images via Sotheby's).

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Contemporary Art Evening
February 12th

Contemporary Art Day
February 13th

Sotheby's
34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA

Andreas Gursky @Gagosian

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 large scale color works, framed in brown wood and unmatted, and hung in a pair of divided gallery spaces. There are 6 works from the Bangkok series in the left hand gallery. These are inkjet prints, each sized 121x89 or 121x93, printed in editions of 6, and made in 2011. There are 7 works from the Oceans series in the right hand gallery. These are c-prints, sized 134x98, 137x98, or 96x179 (or reverse), also printed in editions of 6, and made in 2010. A catalog is available from the Gagosian shop for $120 (here). No photography is allowed in the galleries, so the installation shots at right come from the Gagosian website.
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Comments/Context: Since I have a significant amount of respect for the outstanding and innovative work of the German photographer Andreas Gursky, the easiest thing to do in this review would be to fall in line with the rest of the sycophantic, fawning critics and tell you that these new works are equally as astonishing and groundbreaking as many of his true and undeniable masterpieces. But the fact is, they are not. There, I've said it: the emperor (and he is undeniably the emperor of contemporary photography) has no clothes, at least at the moment.

Of the two new bodies of work on view in this show, the Oceans series has more to recommend it. Using satellite imagery, Gursky has stitched together omniscient view, weather-less composite images of the world's oceans, large expanses of blue with fragments of more recognizable continents and land masses intruding on the edges. These works are printed at such a gargantuan scale that they envelop the viewer, drawing us into the depths of the wide seas. I like the conceptual inversion going on here, where Gursky is capturing the negative space of the globe, upending our education about what the continents are supposed to look like. If someone asked me "what is the shape of South America?", I could immediately bring a decently accurate image to my mind's eye; ask me "what is the shape of the Pacific Ocean?", and I'd be a bit stumped. Gurksy's photographs flatten out the roundness of the globe, tweaking the distortions for broadening effect; the oceans are huge, engulfing, and somehow new. That said, the major innovation here is the monumental scale; if these pictures were 20x24, we'd all say ho hum and think they were intriguing if forgettable scientific shots from National Geographic. And so while this explosion of size does change our perception of the content, the whole group comes off a bit flat for me (no pun intended), especially when seen as a series; perhaps staged as a single image dwarfing a low ceilinged room of other art, one of these Oceans might be a bit more powerful.

Gursky's newest series of Bangkok water abstractions is, I'm very sorry to report, simply dreadful; the folks at Gagosian must have cringed when they saw that this was the work that would inaugurate their new representation relationship. The works are dark bodies of reflected water, where the refractions shatter into abstract fragments of light. More than a few have heavy-handed gestural references to the AbEx masters (Newman and Still are seen repeatedly), with zips and flames dancing through the blackness. These oil slick reflections are interrupted by small pieces of digital debris: clumps of greenery, plastic shampoo bottles, and other snippets of trash and pollution that float into the painterly abstractions, mixing a kind of real world truth into the swaths of energetic pigment. While I intellectually understand the conceptual dichotomy Gursky is going for (beauty and ugliness intertwined), the fact is that photographic reflections on water have been done endlessly; recently by artists like Jessica Backhaus (Venice canals), but also by every amateur photographer in the world (including myself). Once again, excessive scale is the only thing that changes the game here; not only are these pictures visually lifeless, they don't tell us anything new. I expect much more from Gursky, and to say I was underwhelmed by these images is a significant understatement; mostly I was just bored.

On its visual merits alone, this show could have conceivably earned my first zero star review in the history of this site, which pains me severely given my love for Gursky's previous work. That said, after much reflection, I think it jumps just barely to the one star category, mostly because I would recommend seeing this work to consider for yourself how one of our most shining stars could swing and miss so egregiously.

Collector's POV: The prints from the Bangkok series are priced at 400000 Euros each, while the prints from the Oceans series are generally 450000 Euros, with the exception of the largest panoramic work which is 500000 Euros. Gursky's works are routinely among the most expensive photographs available in the secondary markets, consistently fetching upwards of $1 million dollars at auction. His Rhein II recently broke the record for the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction, topping $4.3 million.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Reviews: Artforum (here), New Yorker (here), New York (here)

Andreas Gursky
Through December 17th

Gagosian Gallery
522 West 21st Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Results: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, June 28 and 29, 2011 @Christie's King Street

If you ever needed evidence that the top lots in an auction drive the overall results, look no further than the photography included among Christie's pair of Contemporary Art sales in London last week. While all of the Low and Mid photo lots found buyers, 5 out of the top 6 lots passed, driving the Total Sale Proceeds for photography to less than half of the low end of the estimate range.

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

Total Lots: 33
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £2586000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £3786000
Total Lots Sold: 26
Total Lots Bought In: 7
Buy In %: 21.21%
Total Sale Proceeds: £1257675

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

Low Total Lots: 2
Low Sold: 2
Low Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total Low Estimate: £9000
Total Low Sold: £13125

Mid Total Lots: 15
Mid Sold: 15
Mid Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total Mid Estimate: £262000
Total Mid Sold: £321300

High Total Lots: 16
High Sold: 9
High Bought In: 7
Buy In %: 43.75%
Total High Estimate: £3515000
Total High Sold: £923250

The top lot by High estimate was lot 16, Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 1983, at £1000000-1500000; it did not sell. The top photography outcome was lot 21, Andreas Gursky, Prada II, 1997 at £409250.

92.31% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There was only one surprise in these sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 155, Martha Rosler, Body Beautiful, or Beauty Knows No Pain (Hot Meat), 1966-1972, at £8125 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's)

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

Christie's
8 King Street, St. James's
London SW1Y 6QT

Auctions: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, June 29 and 30, 2011 @Sotheby's London

Sotheby's finishes up the Spring Contemporary Art season with Evening and Day sales next week in London. The top photography lots include works by Gursky, Eliasson, and Gilbert & George. There is also a Gillian Wearing commission available as a benefit for Serpentine Sackler Gallery. Overall, there are a total of 40 photo lots available across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate of £2783000.

Here's the usual statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 1
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £5000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 23
Total Mid Estimate: £378000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 16
Total High Estimate: £2400000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 39, Andreas Gursky, Engadin II, 2006, at £500000-700000. (Image at right, middle, via Sotheby's.)

Here is a list of the photographers who are represented by more than one lot in the two sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Gilbert & George (4)
Andreas Gursky (4)
Vik Muniz (3)
Cindy Sherman (2)
Thomas Struth (2)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (2)

(Lot 288, Gilbert & George, Black Buds, 1980, at £150000-200000, at right, top, and lot 290, Rashid Rana, What Lies Between Skin and Flesh, 2009, at £50000-70000, at right, bottom, via Sotheby's.)

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Contemporary Art Evening
June 29th

Contemporary Art Day
June 30th

Sotheby's
34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA

Auctions: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, May 10 and 11, 2011 @Sotheby's

Sotheby's is up first in the Spring Contemporary Art season in New York next week, with Evening and Day auctions Tuesday and Wednesday. With over $10 million dollars of photographic value on offer, it's clear that consignments are way up, in both number and value. Led by a pair of top end Gurskys, there are more high end photographic lots in this set of sales (33) than in any auction in recent memory. All in, there are a total of 58 lots of photography available across the two sales, with a total High estimate for photography of $10114000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 0
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): NA

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 25
Total Mid Estimate: $744000
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Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 33
Total High Estimate: $9370000
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The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 9, Andreas Gursky, Rhein I, 1996, at $1000000-1500000. (Image at right, top, via Sotheby's.)

Here's the list of photographers represented by three or more lots in the two sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):

John Baldessari (4)
Andreas Gursky (4)
Vik Muniz (4)
Cindy Sherman (4)
Elger Esser (3)
Thomas Ruff (3)
Andres Serrano (3)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (3)
 

(Lot 563, Vik Muniz, Jackies (In Ketchup), 1999, at $150000-200000, image at right, middle, and lot 578, Olafur Eliasson, The Path Series, 1999, at $60000-80000, image at right, bottom, both via Sotheby's.)
 
The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Contemporary Art, Evening Sale
May 10th
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Contemporary Art, Day Sale
May 11th
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Sotheby's
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Auctions: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, February 16 and 17, 2011 @Christie's King Street

Christie's begins its 2011 photo season with a solid selection of contemporary photography in its Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day auctions at King Street on the 16th and 17th. The top eight lots consist of work by just four artists: Gursky, Sugimoto, Sherman, and Gilbert & George. Overall, there are 41 photography lots on offer across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate of £3920000, an increase in estimate value of over 240% compared to the same sale last year.

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 1
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £4000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 23
Total Mid Estimate: £351000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 17
Total High Estimate: £3565000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 17, Andreas Gursky, Untitled V, 1997, at £800000-1200000. (Image at right, top, via Christie's.)

Here is the list of photographers who are represented by two or more lots in the two sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Andreas Gursky (5)

Hiroshi Sugimoto (5)

Candida Höfer (3)

Anselm Kiefer (3)

Zhang Huan (3)

Nobuyoshi Araki (2)

Gilbert & George (2)

Vik Muniz (2)

Shirin Neshat (2)

Cindy Sherman (2)

(Lot 54, Hiroshi Sugimoto, The Last Supper, 2000, at £400000-600000, image at right, bottom, and lot 15, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still (#34), 1979, at £200000-300000, image at right, middle, via Christie's.)

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction
February 16th

Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Auction
February 17th

Christie's
8 King Street, St. James's
London SW1Y 6QT

Top 10 Photography Lots at Auction in 2010

According to our statistics on 71 different auctions around the world in 2010 (covering both focused Photography sales and the photography buried in Contemporary Art and other compilation sales), these were the top 10 photography lots in terms of overall selling price this year. Unlike last year, when no works crossed the $1 million dollar mark in public secondary market transactions, 8 out of the top 10 lots this year broke that threshold (3 actually crossed $2 million dollars). Our top lot last year (Gilbert & George, The Moon, 1978), would have been good for a tie for 10th place this year (last year's list can be found here).

While some might persuasively argue that certain artists do not fall under the label of "photography", all of the works that have been included in this list are made up of photographic prints. Prices all include the buyer's premium and have been converted to dollars/rounded to the nearest dollar where appropriate (1 Euro = 1.31 Dollars; 1 Pound = 1.55 Dollars, both exchange rates slightly lower than last year; varying quality reproductions via the respective houses).
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1.) $2770500: Lot 14, Cindy Sherman, Untitled #153, 1985, at Phillips de Pury & Company, Carte Blanche, November 8th

2.) $2098500: Lot 8, Andreas Gursky, Frankfurt, 2007, at Sotheby's, Contemporary Art, November 9th

3.) $2060338: Lot 6, Andreas Gursky, Pyongyang IV, 2007, at Sotheby's, Contemporary Art, October 15th

4.) $1669738: Lot 72, Andreas Gursky, Madonna I, 2001, at Sotheby's, Contemporary Art, February 10th

5.) $1426500: Lot 19, Cindy Sherman, Untitled #420, 2004, at Phillips de Pury & Company, Carte Blanche, November 8th

5.) $1426500: Lot 58, Cindy Sherman, Untitled (#88), 1981, at Christie's, Post-War and Contemporary Art, November 10th

7.) $1101710: Lot 16, Richard Avedon, Dovima with elephants, Evening dress by Dior, Cirque D'Hiver, Paris, August 1955, 1955/1978, at Christie's, Photographies provenant de la Fondation Richard Avedon, November 20th

8.) $1082500: Lot 122, Edward Weston, Nautilus, 1927, at Sotheby's, Photographs, April 13th

9.) $962500: Lot 17, Thomas Schütte, Old Friends, 1993, at Phillips de Pury & Company, Carte Blanche, November 8th

10.) $902500: Lot 113, Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy), 1998-1999, at Phillips de Pury & Company, Contemporary Art, November 8th

10.) $902500: Lot 8, Andreas Gursky, Chicago Board of Trade, 1997, at Christie's, Collection of Michael Crichton, May 11th
.

While we cover most of the major auctions, it is entirely possible (though not hugely likely) that a photograph could have sold outside our coverage area, in a smaller house or in a secondary market location (especially in the 19th century realm), but could still have reached the top 10 in terms of overall price. So please, if we've missed something somewhere, by all means, add it in the comments.

Auction Results: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, November 9 and 10, 2010 @Sotheby's

The positive run for contemporary photography continued at Sotheby's last week, with another set of sales results that topped their Total High Estimate. An Andreas Gursky print crossed the $2 million dollar threshold once again, for the second time this year. With an overall buy-in rate under 18% and more than two thirds of the photo lots that sold selling above their range, it was an excellent outcome all around, even with two out of the top three photo lots failing to find buyers.

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

Total Lots: 39
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $2999000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $4351000
Total Lots Sold: 32
Total Lots Bought In: 7
Buy In %: 17.95%
Total Sale Proceeds: $4412875

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: 21
Mid Sold: 18
Mid Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 14.29%
Total Mid Estimate: $641000
Total Mid Sold: $713750

High Total Lots: 18
High Sold: 14
High Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 22.22%
Total High Estimate: $3710000
Total High Sold: $3699125

The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 8, Andreas Gursky, Frankfurt, 2007, at $1200000-1800000; it was also the top outcome of the two sales at $2098500. (Image at right, top, via Sotheby's.)

93.75% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 2 surprises in these sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 417, Marilyn Minter, Twins, 2006, at $74500
Lot 419, Sharon Core, Cakes, 2004, at $80500

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

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