Auction Results: Photographs Signature Auction, October 11, 2022 @Heritage

While Heritage was able to find a buyer for the top lot Thomas Struth print of the Pantheon on offer in its Photographs Signature Auction earlier this week, much of the rest of the sale struggled to keep pace. The overall Buy-In rate leaked up beyond 33%, but more troubling was the fact that half of those lots that did sell did so below their estimate ranges. This softness ultimately affected the Total Sale Proceeds (of roughly $975K), which came in underneath the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.

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

Summary Statistics
Total Lots 243
Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate $1356000
Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate $2007500
Total Lots Sold 161
Total Lots Bought In 82
Buy In % 33.74%
Total Sale Proceeds $975658

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

Detailed Breakdown
Low Total Lots 225
Total Low Lots Sold 148
Total Low Lots Bought In 77
Low Buy In % 34.22%
Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots $839500
Total Proceeds from Low Lots $382158
Mid Total Lots 16
Total Mid Lots Sold 10
Total Mid Lots Bought In 6
Mid Buy In % 37.50%
Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots $348000
Total Proceeds from Mid Lots $137250
Total High Lots 2
Total High Lots Sold 2
Total High Lots Bought In 0
High Buy In % 0.00%
Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots $820000
Total Proceeds from High Lots $456250

The top lot by High estimate was lot 73244, Thomas Struth, Pantheon, Rome, 1990/1993, estimated at $500000-700000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $375000 (image above, via Heritage.)

Only 41.61% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 2 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above, via Heritage):

Lot 73063, Sally Mann, Holding Virginia, 1988, estimated at $5000-7000, sold at $21250

Lot 73079, Edouard Boubat, Café de Flore, 1953/later, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $3500

The complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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Read more about: Edouard Boubat, Sally Mann, Thomas Struth, Heritage Auctions

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