Auction Results: Photographs, November 3, 2016 @Phillips London

When the top priced lot sells for more than 4X its high estimate in an auction, that blast of energy tends to fuel the momentum of the entire sale. This was the case at Phillips’ recent Photographs sale in London, where a Thomas Struth print from his museum series (in this case of the Art Institute of Chicago) soared to £635000 against a high estimate of £150000. The rest of the sale performed admirably as well, with an overall Buy-In rate under 24% and plenty of positive surprises, many in the highest price tier where their impact was felt even more strongly. Overall, the Total Sale Proceeds topped the aggregate pre-sale high estimate with room to spare.

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

Summary Statistics
Total Lots 127
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate £1716400
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate £2482500
Total Lots Sold 97
Total Lots Bought In 30
Buy In % 23.62%
Total Sale Proceeds £2747875

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

Detailed Breakdown
Low Total Lots 27
Total Low Lots Sold 22
Total Low Lots Bought In 5
Low Buy In % 18.52%
Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots £97500
Total Proceeds from Low Lots £98375
Mid Total Lots 66
Total Mid Lots Sold 50
Total Mid Lots Bought In 16
Mid Buy In % 24.24%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots £725000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots £679000
Total High Lots 34
Total High Lots Sold 25
Total High Lots Bought In 9
High Buy In % 26.47%
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots £1660000
Total Proceeds from High Lots £1970500

The top lot by High estimate was lot 67, Thomas Struth, Art Institute of Chicago II, Chicago, 1990, estimated at £100000-150000 (image in preview post). It was also the top outcome of the sale at £635000.

An impressive 96.91% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 9 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above via Phillips):

Lot 2, William Eggleston, Untitled, 1971-1974/2012, estimated at £50000-70000, sold at £197000 (image in preview post)

Lot 3, Richard Avedon, Blue Cloud Wright, slaughterhouse worker, Omaha, Nebraska, August 10, 1979, 1979/1985, estimated at £60000-80000, sold at £161000 (image in preview post)

Lot 14, Dennis Hopper, Double Standard, 1961, estimated at £15000-20000, sold at £66250

Lot 17, Annie Leibovitz, R2-D2 on the set of “Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones”, Pinewood Studios, London, 2002/later, estimated at £8000-12000, sold at £35000

Lot 29, Elliott Erwitt, California, 1955/later, estimated at £2000-3000, sold at £7250

Lot 31, Peter Mitchell, Mr. and Mrs. Hudson, Newsagents, Seacroft, Leeds, 1974/2016, estimated at £600-800, sold at £1750

Lot 56, Jeff Brouws, Front Street, Battle Mountain, Nevada, 1993/2011, estimated at £2000-3000, sold at £7500

Lot 67, Thomas Struth, Art Institute of Chicago II, Chicago, 1990, estimated at £100000-150000, sold at £635000 (image in preview post)

Lot 84, Patrick Demarchelier, Christy Turlington, New York, 1990, estimated at £10000-15000, sold at £40000

The complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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Read more about: Annie Leibovitz, Dennis Hopper, Elliott Erwitt, Jeff Brouws, Patrick Demarchelier, Peter Mitchell, Richard Avedon, Thomas Struth, William Eggleston, Phillips

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