Auction Preview: Photographs Including Property from the Museum of Modern Art, October 10, 2017 @Christie’s

The main various owner sale of photography at Christie’s next week begins a run of sales (over the next six months or so) with lots consigned by the Museum of Modern Art, a provenance which has proven to be a consistent draw for collectors. Most of the sales (7 out of a total of 8) will be held online, with portions of this sale being the exception. The auction is headlined by a Peter Beard overpainted work, and supported by solid prints from Man Ray, Penn, Mapplethorpe, Brancusi, and others, with plenty of tempting secondary works at lower prices. Overall, there are a total of 111 lots available in the sale, with a Total High Estimate of $3983000.

Here’s the statistical breakdown:

Preview Statistics
Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000) 24
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of low lots) $174000
Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000) 73
Total Mid Estimate $1649000
Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000) 14
Total High Estimate $2160000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 190, Peter Beard, Orphaned Cheetah Cubs, Mweiga, near Nyeri, Kenya, March 1968, 1968/2017, estimated at $300000-500000 (image above, via Christie’s).

Here’s the complete list of photographers with three or more lots in the sale, along with the number of lots on offer:

Multiple Lots For Sale
Robert Mapplethorpe 9
Irving Penn 9
Hiroshi Sugimoto 6
Ansel Adams 5
Diane Arbus 4
Man Ray 4
Peter Beard 3
Jan Groover 3
Todd Hido 3
Robert Adams 3

Other lots of interest include (images above, via Christie’s):

Lot 102, Man Ray, Rayograph, 1928, estimated at $150000-250000

Lot 136, Irving Penn, Poppy: Glowing Embers, New York, 1968/1989, estimated at $150000-250000

Lot 140, Robert Mapplethorpe, Flag, 1987, estimated at $80000-120000

Lot 151, Ilse Bing, Paris Windows with Flags, Bastille Day, 1933, estimated at $12000-18000

Lot 181, Jan Groover, Untitled no. 77-1, 1979 estimated at $5000-7000

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

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Read more about: Ilse Bing, Irving Penn, Jan Groover, Man Ray, Peter Beard, Robert Mapplethorpe, Christie's

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