Auction Results: Contemporary Curated, June 10, 2015 @Sotheby’s

It was a thoroughly dismal outing for the photography buried in Sotheby’s recent Contemporary Curated sale. With a Buy-In rate for photography at a whopping 60% and very few positive surprises, it’s no shock that the Total Sale Proceeds missed the low end of the pre-sale range by plenty.

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

Summary Statistics
Total Lots 30
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate $288000
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate $410000
Total Lots Sold 12
Total Lots Bought In 18
Buy In % 60.00%
Total Sale Proceeds $149375

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post):

Detailed Breakdown
Low Total Lots 10
Total Low Lots Sold 6
Total Low Lots Bought In 4
Low Buy In % 40.00%
Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots $72000
Total Proceeds from Low Lots $73750
Mid Total Lots 20
Total Mid Lots Sold 6
Total Mid Lots Bought In 14
Mid Buy In % 70.00%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots $338000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots $75625
Total High Lots 0
Total High Lots Sold NA
Total High Lots Bought In NA
High Buy In % NA
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots $0
Total Proceeds from High Lots $0

The top photographic lot by High estimate was tied between two lots: lot 330, Shi Guorui, Bird’s Nest Stadium, 2008, estimated at $15000-25000 (image above, via Sotheby’s) and lot 328, Thomas Struth, An der Thur, Winterthur, 1993, estimated at $20000-25000; neither lot sold. The top outcome of the sale was lot 251, Richard Prince, Untitled (Publicity), 1985, estimated at $6000-8000, sold at $37500 (image above, via Sotheby’s).

66.67% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 2 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above via Sotheby’s):

Lot 251, Richard Prince, Untitled (Publicity), 1985, estimated at $6000-8000, sold at $37500

Lot 332, Shirin Neshat, Untitled, 1996, estimated at $7000-10000, sold at $23750

The complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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