The Fall auction season for photography kicks into gear next week at Sotheby’s in London with a multi-day sale drawn from the collection of the photographer Mario Testino. Photographs are sprinkled through both Afternoon and Day sales, as well as in an Online sale of generally lower priced material that runs for a bit more than a week. Images by Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman lead the way, with solid examples on offer from Tauba Auerbach, Thomas Demand, Gillian Wearing, Sara VanDerBeek, and others. Overall, there are a total of 62 lots of photography available in the sales, with a Total High Estimate for photography of £2296000. (The Online sale consists of another 87 lots of solid photography, but since the results of the online sales are not released, we can’t break down the post-auction data, so these lots have been left out of the larger statistical analysis.)
Here’s the statistical breakdown:
| Preview Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000) | 6 |
| Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of low lots) | £19000 |
| Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000) | 37 |
| Total Mid Estimate | £437000 |
| Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000) | 19 |
| Total High Estimate | £1840000 |
The top photography lot by High estimate is tied between two lots: lot 7, Richard Prince, Untitled (Girlfriend), 1993, and lot 12, Cindy Sherman, Untitled #145, 1985, both estimated at £250000-350000 (images above, via Sotheby’s).
Here’s the complete list of photographers with two or more lots in the sales, along with the number of lots on offer:
| Multiple Lots For Sale | |
|---|---|
| Douglas Gordon | 3 |
| Thomas Ruff | 3 |
| Thomas Demand | 2 |
| Peter Fischli & David Weiss | 2 |
| Roni Horn | 2 |
| Jim Lambie | 2 |
| Sarah Lucas | 2 |
| Paul McCarthy | 2 |
| Steven Shearer | 2 |
| Cindy Sherman | 2 |
| Wolfgang Tillmans | 2 |
| Sara Vanderbeek | 2 |
Other lots of interest include (images above, via Sotheby’s):
Lot 138, Tauba Auerbach, Static 11, 2009, estimated at £10000-15000
Lot 143, Thomas Demand, Balconies, 1997, estimated at £40000-60000
Lot 238, Gillian Wearing, Me as Sander, 2012, estimated at £10000-15000
Lot 247, Sara VanDerBeek, Continuum Red, 2008, estimated at £3000-4000
The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Afternoon), here (Day), and here (Online).
