As expected, the single artist sale of prints from The Irving Penn Foundation performed admirably. The top lot honors went to a print of “Ginkgo Leaves” at $567600, a new auction record for a Penn print, with another eleven prints finding buyers in six figures. With a low overall Buy-In rate (just under 6%) and a few positive surprises to push the numbers up a bit further, the Total Sale Proceeds (of roughly $4.86M) came in above the top end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
| Summary Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Lots | 70 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | $3129000 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | $4591000 |
| Total Lots Sold | 66 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 4 |
| Buy In % | 5.71% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | $4864074 |
Here is the breakdown (using our typical Low, Mid, and High definitions):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 0 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | NA |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | NA |
| Low Buy In % | NA |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | $0 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | $0 |
| Mid Total Lots | 40 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | 38 |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | 2 |
| Mid Buy In % | 5.00% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | $1321000 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | $1089534 |
| Total High Lots | 30 |
| Total High Lots Sold | 28 |
| Total High Lots Bought In | 2 |
| High Buy In % | 6.67% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | $3270000 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | $3774540 |
The top lot by High estimate was tied between three lots, each estimated at $200000-300000: lot 13, Irving Penn, Harlequin Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), New York, 1950/1979, lot 29, Irving Penn, Ginkgo Leaves, New York, 1990/1992, and lot 51, Irving Penn, Mouth (For L’Oréal) (A), New York, 1986/1992; the ginkgo leaves print (lot 29) was the top outcome of the sale at $567600 (image above via Phillips), while the other two lots also found buyers, lot 13 at $283800 and lot 51 at $245100.
84.85% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 4 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above via Phillips):
Lot 1, Irving Penn, Black and White Hat, New York, 1950, estimated at $25000-35000, sold at $70950
Lot 34, Irving Penn, Miles Davis Hand on Trumpet, New York, 1986/1998, estimated at $70000-90000, sold at $180600
Lot 54, Irving Penn, Bee (A), New York, 1995/2001, estimated at $60000-80000, sold at $193500
Lot 70, Irving Penn, Orangutan and Chimpanzee with Coconut, New York, 2004, estimated at $15000-25000, sold at $54180
The complete lot by lot results can be found here.
