Sotheby’s London Photographs Results, November 2021

After a nearly five week break, photography auctions have recommenced, starting with a Photographs auction from Sotheby’s London. The auction took place over several days, culminating with the final results on 16 November. The auction brought together nearly 100 prints from ‘some of the most celebrated names in photography from the 20th and 21st centuries’ including the works of Nobuyoshi Araki, Wolfgang Tillmans, Man Ray, Guy Bourdin, and Hiroshi Sugimoto. Several lots were sold to benefit The Photographer’s Gallery in London. Estimates ranged from £1,000 to £260,000. The sale brought in a total of £678,510 ($911,103), with many lots failing to meet their reserves.

The highest priced sale was William Eggleston’s collection of photographs titled Untitiled (10.D.70.V1) which had an initial estimate of £80,000-£120,000 and reached a conservative £100,800. At exactly half that amount was the second most expensive lot; Nobuyoshi Araki’s Yakusa, 1994 which had an estimate of £40,000-£60,000 and gained a hammer price of £50,400. In third place was Helmut Newton Saddle III, Paris, 1976, which sold for £27,720 after an estimate of £20,000-£30,000.

The modest results reflects the meagre offerings in this auction, with even the most expensive lot failing to reach even the top 20 most expensive sales this year. This auction is one of only two remaining photography-specific auctions from Sotheby’s for the rest of this year, the other being the 9th December auction The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographs from the personal collection of Peter Fetterman.

image by eva-dang