Auction Results: A Constant Pursuit: Photographs from the Collection of Ed Cohen & Victoria Shaw, October 4, 2018 @Phillips

All fourteen items in the above $50K high estimate range in the recent single owner collection sale at Phillips found buyers, and when momentum like that builds up, the rest of the sale usually takes care of itself. With an overall Buy-In rate under 30% and plenty of positive surprises to push the numbers higher, the Total Sale Proceeds came in just above the middle of the aggregate pre-sale estimate.

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

Summary Statistics
Total Lots 82
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate $1727700
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate $2596300
Total Lots Sold 59
Total Lots Bought In 23
Buy In % 28.05%
Total Sale Proceeds $2242125

Here is the breakdown (using our typical Low, Mid, and High definitions):

Detailed Breakdown
Low Total Lots 26
Total Low Lots Sold 17
Total Low Lots Bought In 9
Low Buy In % 34.62%
Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots $170300
Total Proceeds from Low Lots $133375
Mid Total Lots 42
Total Mid Lots Sold 28
Total Mid Lots Bought In 14
Mid Buy In % 33.33%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots $1011000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots $770000
Total High Lots 14
Total High Lots Sold 14
Total High Lots Bought In 0
High Buy In % 0.00%
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots $1415000
Total Proceeds from High Lots $1338750

The top lot by High estimate was lot 21, Richard Avedon, Marilyn Monroe, New York City, May 6, 1957, estimated at $200000-300000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $250000 (image above via Phillips).

94.92% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 9 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above via Phillips):

Lot 5, Richard Avedon, W.H. Auden, poet, St. Marks Place, New York City, 1960/1994, estimated at $15000-25000, sold at $75000

Lot 9, Francesca Woodman, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976, estimated at $40000-60000, sold at $125000

Lot 10, Diane Arbus, Woman at a counter smoking, NYC, 1962/later, estimated at $8000-12000, sold at $32500

Lot 16, Irving Penn, Three Squatting Sisters, Nepal, 1967/1971, estimated at $8000-12000, sold at $43750

Lot 18, Lotte Jacobi, Albert Einstein, Physicist, Princeton, NJ, 1938/later, estimated at $1200-1800, sold at $5000

Lot 22, Irving Penn, Joseph Brodsky, New York, 1980, estimated at $10000-15000, sold at $32500

Lot 36, Harry Diamond, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud in Dean St. Soho, 1973, estimated at $2000-3000, sold at $6875

Lot 39, Shomei Tomatsu, Hibakusha Shimotani Tomitaro, Nagasaki from Nagasaki 11:02, 1961/1980, estimated at $7000-9000, sold at $18750

Lot 43, Garry Winogrand, Democratic National Convention, 1960/later, estimated at $10000-15000, sold at $30000

The complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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Read more about: Diane Arbus, Francesca Woodman, Garry Winogrand, Harry Diamond, Irving Penn, Lotte Jacobi, Richard Avedon, Shomei Tomatsu, Phillips

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