Auction Results: Photographs, May 20, 2021 @Phillips London

Two Peter Beard prints led the way at the various owner Photographs auction at Phillips in London last week. In general, the results fell in line with expectations, and with a low overall Buy-In rate (under 17%) and a number of positive surprises, the Total Sale Proceeds (of just over £1.5M) came in squarely in the middle of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.

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

Summary Statistics
Total Lots 119
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate £1178100
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate £1754900
Total Lots Sold 99
Total Lots Bought In 20
Buy In % 16.81%
Total Sale Proceeds £1508787

Here is the breakdown (using our typical Low, Mid, and High definitions):

Detailed Breakdown
Low Total Lots 20
Total Low Lots Sold 17
Total Low Lots Bought In 3
Low Buy In % 15.00%
Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots £71900
Total Proceeds from Low Lots £71127
Mid Total Lots 86
Total Mid Lots Sold 69
Total Mid Lots Bought In 17
Mid Buy In % 19.77%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots £1023000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots £836640
Total High Lots 13
Total High Lots Sold 13
Total High Lots Bought In 0
High Buy In % 0.00%
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots £660000
Total Proceeds from High Lots £601020

The top lot by High estimate was tied between two lots: lot 11, Peter Beard,
Francis Bacon on his roof at 80 Narrow Street, London (soon to be lost gambling), during the dead elephant interviews, March, 1972/later, and lot 24, Peter Beard, Lion Pride near Ndutu, Southern Serengeti – with Richard Bell, 1976/later, both estimated at £80000-120000. Coincidentally, the two lots were also tied for the top outcome of the sale at £100800 (images above, via Phillips).

87.88% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 6 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above via Phillips):

Lot 51, William Klein, Gun 1, New York, 1955/2000, estimated at £7000-9000, sold at £20160

Lot 75, Anton Corbijn, Kate, 1996, estimated at £4000-6000, sold at £15120

Lot 78, Herb Ritts, Nicole Kidman, Culver City, 1999, estimated at £2000-3000, sold at £6300

Lot 85, Malick Sidibé, Nuit de Nöel (Happy-Club), 1963/2001, estimated at £7000-9000, sold at £27720

Lot 103, Nick Brandt, Zebra on Lake, Ngorongoro Crater, 2005, estimated at £6000-8000, sold at £20160

Lot 119, Slim Aarons, The Marlboroughs, 1957/later, estimated at £800-1200, sold at £10584

The complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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Read more about: Anton Corbijn, Herb Ritts, Malick Sidibé, Nick Brandt, Peter Beard, Slim Aarons, William Klein, Phillips

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