The bad mood market funk that descended on the photography sales at Christie’s earlier this week continued at Sotheby’s yesterday, albeit with a bit less spiteful vengeance. Once again, the top end lots performed poorly, and there were few positive surprises (and in a particularly unexpected occurrence, those three lots that did double their high estimates were all later prints). With softness at the top and an overall Buy-In rate over 40%, it’s pretty difficult to make the results numbers come out well, and so not surprisingly, the Total Sale Proceeds fell underneath the pre-sale estimate range.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
| Summary Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Lots | 223 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | $3800500 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | $5722500 |
| Total Lots Sold | 133 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 90 |
| Buy In % | 40.36% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | $3280375 |
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 94 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | 60 |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | 34 |
| Low Buy In % | 36.17% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | $737500 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | $454875 |
| Mid Total Lots | 112 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | 64 |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | 48 |
| Mid Buy In % | 42.86% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | $2475000 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | $1435000 |
| Total High Lots | 17 |
| Total High Lots Sold | 9 |
| Total High Lots Bought In | 8 |
| High Buy In % | 47.06% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | $2510000 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | $1390500 |
The top lot by High estimate was tied between two lots: lot 144, Robert Mapplethorpe, Man in Polyester Suit, 1980, and lot 165, Diane Arbus, National Junior Interstate Dance Champions of 1963, Yonkers, NY, 1963/1967, both estimated at $250000-350000; the Mapplethorpe was the top outcome of the sale at $478000, while the Arbus failed to sell.
87.88% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 3 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above via Sotheby’s):
Lot 96, Ruth Orkin, An American Girl in Florence, 1951/later, estimated at $10000-15000, sold at $32500
Lot 98, Andreas Feininger, 42nd Street, as viewed from Weehawken, 1942/1993, estimated at $5000-7000, sold at $27500
Lot 210, Neil Leifer, Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston, St. Dominick’s Arena, Lewiston, Maine, 1965/later, estimated at $5000-7000, sold at $15000
The complete lot by lot results can be found here.
