Christie’s Photographs, April 2021
Last Tuesday, Christie’s first Photographs auction of the year took place with 87 lots available from significant contemporary and 20th century photographers such as Peter Beard, Nick Brandt, Irving Penn and Diane Arbus. According to the sales literature the sale included ‘a section of works from a private American collector with an emphasis on influential 20th century street photography by Diane Arbus, Louis Faurer, Robert Frank and others’
For the second time so far this year, Man Ray has taken the top spot with the most expensive sale at the auction for his 1924 image Le Violon d’Ingres, which had an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000 but outperformed its top estimate by realising a hammer price of $475,000 – the most expensive photograph sold so far this year.
Another 1920s photograph performed well in the form of Lewis Wickes Hine’s famous Mechanic and Steam Pump image, which had an initial estimate of $100,000 to $150,000 but achieved a sales price of $275,000. Coming, unexpectedly, in third was a self portrait by Peter Hujar, whose 1975 photograph was expected to fetch $30,000-$50,000 but sold for almost double by seeing a hammer price of $93,750. In total the auction brought in $2,193,625 making it the most expensive auction of the year.
View each photograph by clicking on the title or see all the results from this sale at Christie’s website here.