The fifth installment of the liquidation of the holdings of the Pier 24 Photography museum took place earlier this week at Sotheby’s, with a no reserve selection of works. On top of the two sales last May that brought in a combined tally of more that $10.6M (here and here), a smaller sale of anonymous imagery this October (here) that added another $85K, and yet another $2M slice of works several weeks later (here), this sale handled some of what was left. Since there were no reserves, the overall Buy-In rate was 0.00%, but nearly half of the lots sold below their estimate ranges. In the end, Total Sale Proceeds (of roughly $850K) fell squarely in the middle of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
| Summary Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Lots | 128 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | $678500 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | $1029500 |
| Total Lots Sold | 128 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 0 |
| Buy In % | 0.00% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | $853313 |
Here is the breakdown (using our typical Low, Mid, and High definitions):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 101 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | 101 |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | 0 |
| Low Buy In % | 0.00% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | $624500 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | $551180 |
| Mid Total Lots | 27 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | 27 |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | 0 |
| Mid Buy In % | 0.00% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | $405000 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | $302133 |
| Total High Lots | 0 |
| Total High Lots Sold | NA |
| Total High Lots Bought In | NA |
| High Buy In % | NA |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | $0 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | $0 |
The top lot by High estimate was tied between three lots, each estimated at $15000-25000: lot 10, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Rue Mouffetard, 1954/later, lot 55, Edward Steichen, Gloria Swanson, 1924/1960s, and lot 59, Edward Steichen, Greta Garbo, 1928/1960s; the Stiechen print of Greta Garbo was the top outcome of the sale at $44450 (image above via Sotheby’s), while the Steichen print of Gloria Swanson sold at $17780 and the Cartier-Bresson print sold at $38100.
Just 54.69% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were 2 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above via Sotheby’s):
Lot 31, Stephen Shore, 2nd Street, Ashland, WI, 7/10/73, 1973/later, estimated at $4000-6000, sold at $16510
Lot 103, Berenice Abbott, Stone & William Street, Manhattan, 1936, estimated at $3000-5000, sold at $27940
The complete lot by lot results can be found here.
