Auction Results: Contemporary Evening and Day Auctions, November 16 and 17, 2022 @Sotheby’s

Led by an early 1980s work by Barbara Kruger that found a buyer above $1.5M, the photography included in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art sales in New York sale last week delivered admirably. The overall Buy-In rate for photography was a respectable 27%, and buoyed by a couple of positive surprises, the Total Sale Proceeds for photography (of roughly $3.8M) came in 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 22
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate $2190000
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate $3070000
Total Lots Sold 16
Total Lots Bought In 6
Buy In % 27.27%
Total Sale Proceeds $3815380

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 7
Total Mid Lots Sold 6
Total Mid Lots Bought In 1
Mid Buy In % 14.29%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots $270000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots $337680
Total High Lots 15
Total High Lots Sold 10
Total High Lots Bought In 5
High Buy In % 33.33%
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots $2800000
Total Proceeds from High Lots $3477700

The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 1, Barbara Kruger, Untitled (My face is your fortune), 1982, estimated at $600000-800000; it was also the top photography outcome of the sales at $1562500 (image above, via Sotheby’s.)

93.75% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 2 positive surprises in the sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above, via Sotheby’s):

Lot 869, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anemone, 2003, estimated at $30000-40000, sold at $157500

Lot 933, Cindy Sherman, Untitled #577, estimated at $60000-80000, sold at $214200

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

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Read more about: Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Sotheby's

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