Auction Results: Photographies, May 24, 2022 @Christie’s Paris

While the top lot Helmut Newton print did find a buyer within its estimate range at the Photographies sale at Christie’s in Paris last week, a too high Buy-In rate (of more than 45%) dampened the overall outcome. Only two positive surprises jumped out of the general flow of buying and selling, leading to Total Sale Proceeds (of roughly €1.3M) that just missed the bottom end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.

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

Summary Statistics
Total Lots 122
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate €1418800
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate €2122900
Total Lots Sold 67
Total Lots Bought In 55
Buy In % 45.53%
Total Sale Proceeds €1318968

Here is the breakdown (using our typical Low, Mid, and High definitions). Given recent currency fluctuations, we have once again re-adapted our local currency thresholds to match roughly $10000 and $50000 break points between categories.

Detailed Breakdown
Low Total Lots 80
Total Low Lots Sold 43
Total Low Lots Bought In 37
Low Buy In % 46.25%
Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots €439900
Total Proceeds from Low Lots €234108
Mid Total Lots 32
Total Mid Lots Sold 18
Total Mid Lots Bought In 14
Mid Buy In % 43.75%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots €653000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots €418320
Total High Lots 10
Total High Lots Sold 6
Total High Lots Bought In 4
High Buy In % 40.00%
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots €1030000
Total Proceeds from High Lots €666540

The top lot by High estimate was lot 118, Helmut Newton, “Eiffel Tower”, Paris, 1974, estimated at €300000-500000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at €378000 (image above, via Christie’s).

92.54% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 2 surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above, via Christie’s):

Lot 131, Jack Pierson, Self Portrait #4, 2003, estimated at €5000-7000, sold at €15120

Lot 163, Sylvie Fleury, Cool Girl, Diosa de la Moda, Vogue Espagne, 2012, estimated at €1500-2000, sold at €4410

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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Read more about: Helmut Newton, Jack Pierson, Sylvie Fleury, Christie's

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