Auction Results: Photographs Evening and Day Sales, April 1 and 2, 2015 @Phillips

The results from Phillips recent evening and day Photographs sales were consistently solid, easily bringing in the largest total proceeds (roughly $7 million) this season among the three major auction houses. The overall Buy-In rate across the two sales was a respectable 20% and there were enough positive surprises during the day to push the Total Sale Proceeds into the middle of the pre-sale estimate range.

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

Summary Statistics
Total Lots 241
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate $6307500
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate $8912500
Total Lots Sold 192
Total Lots Bought In 49
Buy In % 20.33%
Total Sale Proceeds $7083000

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

Detailed Breakdown
Low Total Lots 82
Total Low Lots Sold 65
Total Low Lots Bought In 17
Low Buy In % 20.73%
Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots $557500
Total Proceeds from Low Lots $495375
Mid Total Lots 124
Total Mid Lots Sold 100
Total Mid Lots Bought In 24
Mid Buy In % 19.35%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots $2815000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots $2510625
Total High Lots 35
Total High Lots Sold 27
Total High Lots Bought In 8
High Buy In % 22.86%
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots $5540000
Total Proceeds from High Lots $4077000

The top lot by High estimate was lot 18, Helmut Newton, Walking Women, Paris, 1981, estimated at $700000-900000; it was also the top outcome of the two sales at $905000 (image in preview post).

90.63% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 12 positive surprises in the sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above, via Phillips):

Lot 115, Annie Leibovitz, Lauren Hutton, Oxford, Mississippi, 1981, estimated at $4000-6000, sold at $17500

Lot 149, Garry Winogrand, Salt Lake City Municipal Airport, 1964, estimated at $10000-15000, sold at $37500

Lot 207, Daniele Tamagni, Willy Covary, 2008, estimated at $2500-3500, sold at $7500

Lot 209, Peter Beard, Fayel Tall at Loingalani, Lake Rudolph, Kenya, 1987/1998, estimated at $15000-20000, sold at $40000

Lot 214, Pieter Hugo, Adbullahi Mohammed with Mainasara, Ogere-Remo, Nigeria, 2007, estimated at $15000-20000, sold at $40000

Lot 222, Sebastião Salgado, The Eastern Part of the Brooks Range, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, USA, 2009, estimated at $35000-45000, sold at $97500

Lot 236, Joel Meyerowitz, Dairyland, Provincetown, 1976, estimated at $6000-8000, sold at 16250

Lot 253, Mitch Epstein, Amos Coal Power Plant, West Virginia, 2004, estimated at $20000-30000, sold at $62500

Lot 273, Alex Prager, Crowd #2 (Emma), 2012, estimated at $20000-30000, sold at $75000

Lot 278, Andrew Moore, Model T Headquarters, Highland Park, Detroit, 2009, estimated at $6000-8000, sold at $16250

Lot 281, Marco Breuer, Spin (C-827), 2008, estimated at $5000-7000, sold at $15000

Lot 314, Catherine Opie, Untitled #8 from Freeway, 1994, estimated at $2000-3000, sold at $11875

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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Read more about: Alex Prager, Andrew Moore, Annie Leibovitz, Catherine Opie, Daniele Tamagni, Garry Winogrand, Joel Meyerowitz, Marco Breuer, Mitch Epstein, Peter Beard, Pieter Hugo, Sebastião Salgado, Phillips

One comment

  1. Pete /

    Next time you report that Prager being sold I reckon it will be ten times more expensive.

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