Auction Results: Foto-Auktion, November 21, 2014 @WestLicht

While many auction suffer from overly high Buy-In rates, this auction could be a case study in the variant case where the Buy-In rate is generally low, but the most of the sales are made below the estimate range – in short, the lots find buyers, but at low prices. Here the overall Buy-In rate was less than 25%, but roughly 58% of the lots that sold found buyers below their estimates; the result was an outcome where the Total Sale Proceeds neared €900000, but ultimately fell below the pre-sale estimate range.

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

Summary Statistics
Total Lots 191
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate €963200
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate €1207200
Total Lots Sold 147
Total Lots Bought In 44
Buy In % 23.04%
Total Sale Proceeds €870444

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

Detailed Breakdown
Low Total Lots 172
Total Low Lots Sold 132
Total Low Lots Bought In 40
Low Buy In % 23.26%
Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots €532200
Total Proceeds from Low Lots €367164
Mid Total Lots 12
Total Mid Lots Sold 9
Total Mid Lots Bought In 3
Mid Buy In % 25.00%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots €195000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots €137280
Total High Lots 7
Total High Lots Sold 6
Total High Lots Bought In 1
High Buy In % 14.29%
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots €480000
Total Proceeds from High Lots €366000

The top lot by High estimate was lot 97, Diane Arbus, Identical Twins (from A Box of Ten Photographs), 1967/1973, estimated at €80000-100000; it sold for €72000. The top outcome of the sale was lot 18, Rudolf Koppitz, Bewegunsstudie, 1925, estimated at €50000-60000, sold at €90000 (image in preview post).

Only 41.50% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 4 surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 39, Weegee, Herald Square – Looking North (Distortion), 1940s, estimated at €2000-2500, sold at €5040 (image above, middle, via WestLicht)

Lot 61, Marc Riboud, A street in Beijing as seen from inside an antique dealer’s shop, 1935/1972, estimated at €2500-3000, sold at €10800 (image above, left, via WestLicht)

Lot 64, Marc Riboud, Dans une rue de Pekin, China, 1957, estimated at €1500-1800, sold at €3600

Lot 89, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Inghliterra (England), 1977, estimated at €2000-2400, sold at €5040 (image above, right, via WestLicht)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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Read more about: Gianni Berengo Gardin, Marc Riboud, Weegee (Arthur Felig), OstLicht Photo Auction

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