When both of the million dollar photo lots pass, but somehow the total sale proceeds for photography can still fall within the estimate range, I think it says something about how broad based the demand in the market has become. This is exactly what occurred at Christie’s earlier this week – both the Wall and the Prince bought in, but the rest of the sale picked up the slack, with an overall buy-in rate of less than 10%. The evening portion of the Crichton Collection sale was white glove, with the Gursky (at right) and another Prince (below) both selling above their estimates.
Total Lots: 44
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $4521000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $6684000
Total Lots Sold: 40
Total Lots Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 9.09%
Total Sale Proceeds: $5514600
Low Sold: 1
Low Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total Low Estimate: $3000
Total Low Sold: $2750
Mid Sold: 20
Mid Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 9.09%
Total Mid Estimate: $621000
High Sold: 19
High Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 9.52%
Total High Estimate: $6060000
The two top photography lots by High estimate were lot 69, Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy), 1999, and lot 73, Jeff Wall, Adrian Walker, artist, drawing from a specimen in the Dept. of Anatomy at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 1992, both at $800000-1200000; neither of these lots sold. The top outcome of the series of sales was lot 8, Andreas Gursky, Chicago Board of Trade, 1997, at $902500. (Image at right, top, via Christie’s.)
95.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 6 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
