Christie’s New York Photography Auctions
Months have slipped by and seasons have changed since Christie’s last held a photography auction, but as a new year of sales begins Christie’s has brought two at once in the form of their annual Photographs auction and Photographs from the Richard Gere Collection. Here’s a look at the sales talking points:
Running online from 23rd March to 5th April, the annual New York Photographs auction from Christie’s brought together an array of prints and lots ranging from iconic images by old masters, to new work by unknown artists, with the inclusion of the ever popular NFTs form of investment. Bringing in a sales total of $1,426,446, the auctions saw several lots outperforming their original estimates including third place Hockney, whose Self Portrait, Los Angeles, 1982, which was billed for a sales price of $10,000-$15,000 but saw a hammer price more than six-times it’s top estimate at $94,500. In second place was the classic Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris 1955 by auction-darling Richard Avedon, which earned a hammer price of $126,000 after an estimate of $150,000-$250,000 – the image is one of the most popular at auction according to the latest volume of the Photography at Auction Digest. The most expensive lot of this auction was a collection of images by various artists from the Quantum Art platform, which brings together NFTs by rising stars in the art scene. The lot realised a sales total of $163,800.
The second of Christie’s photography auctions came in the form of a sale of traditional prints from a private collection: Photographs from the Richard Gere Collection. The auction, which took place from 23rd March-7 April, was decidedly more popular than the Photographs auction, as it raised a grand total of $2,422,350 – more than double Christie’s regular scheduled annual auction. Individual lots performed better too. The top three most expensive lots all earned more than those at the Photographs auction, and all reached their minimum estimates at the very least. The auction brought together a host of well known prints from lauded masters of the craft including Stieglitz, Weston, Arbus, Penn, Cartier-Bresson and Beard. The top three most expensive sales included Edward Weston’s Nude on Sand, Oceano, 1936, which fetched $107,100 after an initial estimate of $70,000-$100,000, Alfred Stieglitz’s Georgia O’Keeffe, 1918 came third with a hammer price of $302,400, after an estimate of $300,000-$500,000 and in first place was František Drtikol’s Temná vlna (The Dark Wave), 1926 which significantly outperformed it’s estimate of $100,000-$150,000 by selling for $325,800.
There has also recently been two photography auctions hosted by Phillips, which will be detailed in an upcoming post. For more photography auctions this month, take a look at this spring’s auction calendar in this previous post.
image by Erik Park