While positive surprises for photography do pop up here and there in smaller contemporary art sales, it’s decently rare to see one like the Gerhard Richter overpainted photograph which sold for over $400K, topping its high estimate by more than 8X, in the Contemporary Curated sale at Sotheby’s last week. The rest of the photo results from the sales at Sotheby’s were far more uneventful, with an overall Buy-In rate for photography under 14% and just one additional positive surprise (a layered multiple exposure image by Idris Khan.) When the dust settled, and with the Richter work pulling the numbers up substantially, the Total Sale Proceeds for photography across the two sales (of just over $600K) came in well above the high end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
| Summary Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Lots | 15 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | $298000 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | $460000 |
| Total Lots Sold | 13 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 2 |
| Buy In % | 13.33% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | $602624 |
Here is the breakdown (using our usual Low, Mid, and High price tier definitions):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 6 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | 6 |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | 0 |
| Low Buy In % | 0.00% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | $55000 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | $61440 |
| Mid Total Lots | 7 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | 6 |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | 1 |
| Mid Buy In % | 14.29% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | $275000 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | $535040 |
| Total High Lots | 2 |
| Total High Lots Sold | 1 |
| Total High Lots Bought In | 1 |
| High Buy In % | 50.00% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | $130000 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | $6144 |
The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 408, Wade Guyton, Untitled, 2018, estimated at $50000-70000; it did not sell. The top photography outcome of the sales was lot 31, Gerhard Richter, Untitled (5.2.89), 1989, estimated at $30000-50000, sold at $409600 (image above, via Sotheby’s).
69.23% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were 2 positive surprises in the sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (image above, via Sotheby’s):
Lot 31, Gerhard Richter, Untitled (5.2.89), 1989, estimated at $30000-50000, sold at $409600
Lot 616, Idris Khan, Homage to Bernd Becher, 2007, estimated at $6000-9000, sold at $19200
The complete lot by lot results can be found here (Contemporary Curated) and here (Contemporary Discoveries).
