Auction Results: Modern and Contemporary Photographs, June 1, 2016 @Grisebach

While the top lot did sell and a number of positive surprises dotted Villa Grisebach’s recent Modern and Contemporary Photographs sale in Berlin, these weren’t enough to compensate for a too-high Buy-In rate that topped 40%. As a result, the Total Sale Proceeds failed to clear even the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.

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

Summary Statistics
Total Lots 234
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate €716900
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate €992600
Total Lots Sold 138
Total Lots Bought In 96
Buy In % 41.03%
Total Sale Proceeds €634311

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

Detailed Breakdown
Low Total Lots 213
Total Low Lots Sold 127
Total Low Lots Bought In 86
Low Buy In % 40.38%
Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots €513600
Total Proceeds from Low Lots €303686
Mid Total Lots 18
Total Mid Lots Sold 9
Total Mid Lots Bought In 9
Mid Buy In % 50.00%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots €309000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots €204375
Total High Lots 3
Total High Lots Sold 2
Total High Lots Bought In 1
High Buy In % 33.33%
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots €170000
Total Proceeds from High Lots €126250

The top lot by High estimate was lot 2188, Peter Beard, Andy Warhol at Home in Montauk, Church Estate, New York, 1972/2002, estimated at €50000-70000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at €70000 (image in preview post).

95.65% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 11 surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above, via Villa Grisebach):

Lot 2004, Gertrud Arndt, Negative Portrait of Wera Meyer-Waldeck, Dessau, 1930, estimated at €10000-15000, sold at €52500

Lot 2021, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Canteen for workers building the Hotel Metropol, Moscow, 1954/later, estimated at €2000-3000, sold at €7000

Lot 2054, Florence Henri, Self portrait, Paris, 1928/1974, estimated at €1000-1200, sold at €2750

Lot 2071, Chris Killip, Crabs, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, 1984/2008, estimated at €1000-1500, sold at €4000

Lot 2121, Heinrich Riebesehl, Algermissen (Hildeshein), 1977, estimated at €1200-1400, sold at €6250

Lot 2132, Werner Rohde, Wachskopf, 1928, estimated at €1500-2000, sold at €6000

Lot 2134, Tata Ronkholz, Trinkhalle No. 8, 1977, estimated at €2500-3500, sold at €9750

Lot 2135, Tata Ronkholz, Dusseldorf-Gerresheim, Linienstrasse 141, 1977, estimated at €2500-3500, sold at €9375

Lot 2149, Anton Stankowski, Schornstein, 1930/later, estimated at €500-700, sold at €3750

Lot 2183, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Elevated railway station, Werther Brucke, Wuppertal, 1972, estimated at €1000-1500, sold at €3500

Lot 2219, Julius Shulman and Juergen Nogai, Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut, 2006, estimated at €1000-1500, sold at €3500

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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Read more about: Anton Stankowski, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Chris Killip, Florence Henri, Gertrud Arndt, Heinrich Riebesehl, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Julius Shulman, Tata Ronkholz, Werner Rohde, Grisebach

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