With weakness in the mid and high price tiers, the photography included in Christie’s First Open/LDN sale struggled to gather momentum. With an overall Buy-In rate for photography over 35% and few positive surprises, the Total Sale Results missed the low end of the pre-sale estimate range.
As a side note, I’d be interested to hear the backstory behind bidding more than 4X the high estimate for a fresh to the market 2014 Gerhard Richter print apparently available in an edition of 500 (see below).
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
| Summary Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Lots | 31 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | £241000 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | £344500 |
| Total Lots Sold | 20 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 11 |
| Buy In % | 35.48% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | £192375 |
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 11 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | 11 |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | 0 |
| Low Buy In % | 0.00% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | £37500 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | £54125 |
| Mid Total Lots | 17 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | 8 |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | 9 |
| Mid Buy In % | 52.94% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | £202000 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | £98250 |
| Total High Lots | 3 |
| Total High Lots Sold | 1 |
| Total High Lots Bought In | 2 |
| High Buy In % | 66.67% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | £105000 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | £40000 |
The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 138, Doug Aitken, Plateau, 2002, estimated at £30000-40000; it did not sell. The top photography outcome of the sale was lot 54, Idris Khan, Struggling to Hear … After Ludwig van Beethoven Sonatas, 2005, estimated at £25000-35000, sold at £40000 (image in preview post).
90.00% of the photo lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 3 surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 33, Gerhard Richter, Domecke I (Cathedral Corner I), 1998, estimated at £8000-12000, sold at £27500 (image above, left, via Christie’s)
Lot 35, Gerhard Richter, Bouquet, 2014, estimated at £2000-3000, sold at £13750 (image above, middle, via Christie’s)
Lot 224, John Waters, Artistically Incorrect, 2006, estimated at £2000-3000, sold at £6875 (image above, right, via Christie’s)
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
