Auction Results: 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, October 2 and 3, 2019 @Phillips London

The photographs on offer in the recent 20th Century & Contemporary Art sales at Phillips in London performed solidly. A Wolfgang Tillmans abstraction pushed an Andreas Gursky print aside for the top lot honors, and with a Buy-In rate for photography of less than 18%, the Total Sale Proceeds for photography came in at £2.8M, above the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Summary Statistics
Total Lots 29
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate £2435000
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate £3547000
Total Lots Sold 24
Total Lots Bought In 5
Buy In % 17.24%
Total Sale Proceeds £2843625

Here is the breakdown (using our usual Low, Mid, and High price tier definitions):

Detailed Breakdown
Low Total Lots 0
Total Low Lots Sold NA
Total Low Lots Bought In NA
Low Buy In % NA
Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots £0
Total Proceeds from Low Lots £0
Mid Total Lots 12
Total Mid Lots Sold 11
Total Mid Lots Bought In 1
Mid Buy In % 8.33%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots £147000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots £158375
Total High Lots 17
Total High Lots Sold 13
Total High Lots Bought In 4
High Buy In % 23.53%
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots £3400000
Total Proceeds from High Lots £2685250

The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 26, Andreas Gursky, Klitschko, 1999, estimated at £500000-700000; it sold at £399000. The top photography outcome of the sales was lot 42, Wolfgang Tillmans, Freischwimmer 99, 2004, estimated at £250000-350000, sold at £435000 (image above, via Phillips).

83.33% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there was 1 positive surprise in the sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (image above, via Phillips):

Lot 43, Cory Arcangel, Photoshop CS: 110 by 72 inches, 300 DPI, RGB, square pixels, default gradient “Spectrum,” mousedown y=31100 x=1500, mouse up y=32850 x=800, 2008, estimated at £100000-150000, sold at £325000

The complete lot by lot results can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

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Read more about: Cory Arcangel, Wolfgang Tillmans, Phillips

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