There just isn’t any way to sugar coat the dismal photography results from the recent MUSIC themed sale at Phillips in London. With a Buy-In rate at 60% and Total Sale Proceeds that missed the estimate range by a mile, it was a bomb. Luckily, the top two lots found buyers, avoiding what would have been a major wipeout.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 75
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £243150
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £351450
Total Lots Sold: 30
Total Lots Bought In: 45
Buy In %: 60.00%
Total Sale Proceeds: £135388
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 64
Low Sold: 27
Low Bought In: 37
Buy In %: 57.81%
Total Low Estimate: £155450
Total Low Sold: £45813
Mid Total Lots: 9
Mid Sold: 1
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 88.89%
Total Mid Estimate: £126000
Total Mid Sold: £11875
High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total High Estimate: £70000
Total High Sold: £77700
The top lot by High estimate was lot 1, Idris Khan, Rachmaninoff…Preludes, 2007, at £35000-40000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at £56450.
Only 70.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds above or in the estimate range, and there was just a single surprise in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 205, David Redfern, Jimi Hendrix, Royal Albert Hall, London, 1969, at £6000 (image at right, top, via Phillips)
