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
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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

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

Preceding its various owner photographs sale in Paris next week, Sotheby's has a single artist sale of the work of German photographer Heinz Hajek-Halke on offer. Most of the works in the auction are experimental photomontages and avante-garde multiple negative images, with a heavy dose of double/layered nudes and portraits, most made between the late 1920s and the 1950s. Overall, there are a total of 78 lots available, all by Hajek-Halke, with a Total High Estimate of 625000€.
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Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including 7500€): 56
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 309000€

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500€ and 35000€): 22

Total Mid Estimate: 316000€

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

The top lot by High estimate is tied between two lots: lot 76, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Sans Titre, 1930-1936, and lot 77, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Sans Titre, 1930-1936, image at right middle, via Sotheby's, both at 20000-30000€.

(Lot 34, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Sans Titre, 1927, at 5000-7000€, image at right, top, and lot 52, Heinz Hajek-Halke, Das Mauerlied, 1955, at 2000-

4000€, image at right, bottom, both via Sotheby's.)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

L'Essentiel Heinz Hajek-Halke
May 10th

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

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