Recent Auction Results; July 2020
Just before the summer break (later this year due to pandemic-related rescheduling), several auction houses hosted their final photography auctions of the season including a Photographs auction from Phillips and a reconfigured erotica auction in Magnificent Nudes at Sotheby’s.
Photographs, Phillips, New York
Held on Monday 13th July, Phillips held their annual spring Photographs auction in New York with 236 lots on offer from marquee artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Weston, William Eggleston and Jeff Wall, along with works from contemporary artists like Alec Soth, Zhang Huan and Wolfgang Tillmans. Despite being one of Phillips major photography auctions of the year, the sales failed to rouse any particularly newsworthy hammer prices.
Ansel Adams’ Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada from Lone Pine California was the highest priced sale with a conservative $412,500, followed by the recently deceased Peter Beard whose Ruhuti Valley print sold for $162,500. Zhang Huan’s print Family Tree came in third with a hammer price of $118,750.
Magnificent Nudes: Iconic Photographs from Distinguished Private Collection, Sotheby’s, Paris
Taking place in Paris from 9-16th July, the Magnificent Nudes auction brought together 53 lots from various owners’ private collections, including work by Andre Kertesz, Bill Brandt, Helmut Newton and Francesca Woodman.
Unsurprisingly photographs by Helmut Newton were successful, with the top two most expensive lots attributed to the artist. The most expensive sale was Newton’s The Arielle Portfolio – a collection of ten silver prints which sold for €55,000. His 1976 untitled work sold for €43,750 and, coming in third, was Zebra 17, 1988 by Francis Giacobetti, selling for €27,500.
The auction raised a sales total of €319,875. View all the lots and their hammer prices at Sotheby’s webpage here.
Legends, Landscapes and Lovelies: Photographs, Sothebys, New York
Taking place on 29th July in New York, Sotheby’s Legends, Landscapes and Lovelies brought together an affordable collection of 58 photographs from artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Chris Levine and Elliott Erwitt. All lots were offered entirely at No Reserve with estimates ranging from $1,000 to $100,000. This was an opportunity for collectors to snap up some good deals such as a Bernice Abbott print for only $500.
The most expensive lot was a collection of photographs of Kate Moss by photographers such as Terry Richardson, Bruce Weber and Mario Testino. The estimate for this lot was $100,000 to $150,000 but was snapped up for only $75,000. Lot 2 was the second most expensive sale, Nuit de Noel by Malick Sidibe which saw a hammer price of $40,000 after an estimate of $20,000-$30,000. Finally, Max Yavno’s Muscle Beach saw another buyer grab a deal for $17,500 after an estimate of $15,000-$25,000.
Other auctions of note include The Ginny Williams Collection at Sotheby’s which had previously been scheduled as a photography auction but was eventually hosted with numerous photographic prints among a collection of 142 lots including paintings, sketches and sculpture. Photographs included works by Sebastian Salgado, Andy Goldsworthy and David Hockney. The auction brought in a sales total of $1,909,750,
Image by Eric Park