Auction: Photographs, May 8, 2013 @Phillips London

The spring auction season in London gets going next week, starting with Phillips' various owner Photographs sale Wednesday. It's a broad, primarily mid-range sale, with few major anchor pieces or unexpected treasures. Overall, there are a total of 123 lots of photography available in the sale, with a Total High Estimate of £1676500.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 49
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £182500

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 59
Total Mid Estimate: £714000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 15
Total High Estimate: £780000

The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 32, Nobuyoshi Araki, 77 works, n.d., estimated at £100000-120000. (Image at right, top, via Phillips.)

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

Robert Mapplethorpe (7)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (4)
Horst P. Horst (4)
David LaChapelle (4)

Other lots of interest include lot 39, Germaine Krull, Selected images, 1923-1927, estimated at £10000-15000 (image at right, middle), and lot 97, Adam Fuss, Untitled, 2006, estimated at £15000-20000 (image at right, bottom, both via Phillips).

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographs
May 8th

Phillips
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Auction Results: Photography and Contemporary Art, May 30 and June 1, 2011 @Lempertz

The results from the recent Photography and Contemporary Art sales at Kunsthaus Lempertz in Cologne were generally on the soft side. The overall Buy-In rate was over 40% and the Total Sale Proceeds fell meaningfully below the estimate target. (Lempertz does not provide an estimate range in most cases, just a single estimate number, so this figure is used as the High estimate in our calculations). A pair of winding tower typologies from the Bechers helped to keep the sale above water.

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

Total Lots: 214
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 540550€
Total Lots Sold: 123
Total Lots Bought In: 91
Buy In %: 42.52%
Total Sale Proceeds: 372370€

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

Low Total Lots: 204
Low Sold: 118
Low Bought In: 86
Buy In %: 42.16%
Total Low Estimate: 315550€
Total Low Sold: 231370€

Mid Total Lots: 7
Mid Sold: 3
Mid Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 57.14%
Total Mid Estimate: 105000€
Total Mid Sold: 47400€

High Total Lots: 3
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 33.33%
Total High Estimate: 120000€
Total High Sold: 93600€
.
The top lot by High estimate was tied between three lots, each estimated at 30000-40000€. Two of the lots were groups of 4 winding tower prints by Bernd and Hilla Becher (each individual image titled by location): lot 508 from 1974-1978, and lot 509 from 1966-1968; lot 508 sold for 38400€ and lot 509 was the top outcome of the sale at 55200€. The third was lot 590, Andreas Gursky, Furkapass, 1989; it did not sell.

78.86% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate. There were a total of 13 surprises across the two sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 5, Wilhelm Schneider, Innenaufnahme Eines Salons, 1860, at 2640€
Lot 13, Rudolph Koppitz, Bewegungsstudie, 1925, at 7440€
Lot 18, Imre Von Santho, Weisses Shantung - Kostum und Weisse Seidenmousselinbluse, 1920s, at 1440€
Lot 23, Friedrich Seidenstucker, Ohne Titel (Zwei Madchen), 1920s, at 3360€
Lot 51, August Sander, Gruppe von Burgermeistern, 1928, at 9000€ (image at right, middle, via Lempertz)
Lot 52, August Sander, Lumpenball, 1920s, at 2640€
Lot 66, Josef Ehm, Akt (Solarisation), 1936, at 2160€
Lot 70, Germaine Krull, Ohne Titel, 1928, at 2160€
Lot 71, Germaine Krull, La Tour Eiffel - Paris, Detail, 1928, at 9600€ (image at right, bottom, via Lempertz)
Lot 83, Karl Hugo Schmolz, Ohne Titel, 1940s, at 1080€
Lot 108, Charlotte March, Op-Art-Mode Von Ungaro, Paris, Fruhjahr, 1963/Later, at 1320€
Lot 118, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Acapulco, Mexico, 1964, at 2640€
Lot 192, Catherine Opie, #20 from the series Freeway, 1994, at 3000€ (image at right, top, via Lempertz)

Complete lot by lot results (for both Photography and Contemporary Art) can be found here.

Kunsthaus Lempertz
Neumarkt 3
D-50667 Köln

Auction: Photographie, May 26, 2011 @Villa Grisebach

Villa Grisebach has its various owner photographs sale in Berlin later this week, with a typical selection of European material (both vintage and contemporary) on offer. Overall, there are a total of 190 lots available in this sale, with a Total High Estimate of 673500€.

Here's the statistical breakdown:
.
Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including 7500€): 176
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 442500€

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500€ and 35000€): 14
Total Mid Estimate: 231000€

Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000€): 0
Total High Estimate: NA

The top lot by High estimate is lot 1409, Oskar Schlemmer/Kurt Bryner, Zwei Alben mit Photographien der familie Schlemmer und Freunden, 1937-1940, at 25000-30000€.

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

Helmar Lerski (8)
Thomas Ruff (4)
Thomas Struth (4)
Herbert Tobias (4)
Aenne Biermann (3)
Ilse Bing (3)
Robert Doisneau (3)
Gisele Freund (3)
Hosrt P. Horst (3)
Germaine Krull (3)
Arnold Newman (3)
Martin Parr (3)
Leni Riefenstahl (3)
Michael Ruetz (3)
Stephen Shore (3)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (3)
Paul Wolff (3)

(Lot 1364, Germaine Krull, Tour d'Eiffel, Paris, 1928, at 3000-4000€, image at right, top, lot 1398 Albert Renger-Patzsch, Zechenturme, Turmforderung (Zeche Grimberg, Bergkamen), 1950, at 2000-3000€, image at right, bottom, and Lot 1439, Thomas Demand, Wurstplatte, 1995, at 3000-4000€, at right, middle; all via Villa Grisebach.)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographie
May 26th
.
Villa Grisebach Auktionen
Fasanenstraße 25
D-10719 Berlin

Auction: Photographie, December 5, 2008 @Lempertz

The upcoming photography sale at Kunsthaus Lempertz has nearly all (approximately 97%) Low priced material available, so there are plenty of affordable options on offer in Cologne. This sale has a total of 220 lots available, with a total high estimate of 418150 Euros. Here's the overall price breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate below 7500 Euros): 214

Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 366150 Euros

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500 and 35000 Euros): 6
Total Mid Estimate: 52000 Euros

Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000 Euros): 0

Total High Estimate: 0 Euros

One helpful feature of the Lempertz photography catalog is that they have stripped out the photography lots buried in their Contemporary Art sale and reprinted them in this catalog. This amounts to another 49 lots, with a total additional high estimate of 315300 Euros. We wish other auction houses would follow this practice, so we wouldn't have to sift through all the various Contemporary Art sales, looking for the handful of photography lots mixed in.

For our collection, there are several lots of interest. Three of them are detailed below:

• Lot 74 Heinz Hajek-Halke, Ohne Titel, 1930-1936 (image at right, top) Hajek-Halke made some unusual nudes in his career and we have been looking to find one that would fit well with our collection. This is one of the better images we have seen, in terms of mixing well with the more American nude aesthetic in our collection.
• Lot 119 Germaine Krull, Pont Suspendu De Rotterdam, 1926 (image at right, middle) Images from Krull's Metal series are quite hard to come by, so we expect this one will be highly sought after (assuming it is in decent condition). The graphic qualities and geometric patterns in this work are fantastic. It would fit perfectly in our city and industrial genre.
• Lot 216 Paul Wolff, Flieder, 1931 (image at right, bottom) We already have a pair of Wolff botanicals in our collection (here), but this image would be a good addition to that group. If you are interested in German botanicals from the 1920s and 1930s, but don't want to step up for a vintage Blossfeldt, we would encourage you to look closely at Wolff's work, as it is both high quality and affordable.
• There is also a spectacular Brassai nude (lot 29) in this sale. However, we already have a print of this image in our collection (here)!

In general, we have had good experience with the various services from Lempertz, including condition reports, billing, and packing/shipping to the US. The sale is certainly worth a look.

Photographie
December 5th

Kunsthaus Lempertz
Neumarkt 3
50667 Koln