Kunsthaus Lempertz has both a various owner Photography sale and a Contemporary Art sale this Friday in Cologne. The photo auction is headlined by a series of mushroom cloud images from the atomic bomb tests in the Bikini Islands in 1946, but together the two sales cover a wide range of styles and periods. Overall, there are a total of 227 lots of photography on offer, with a Total High Estimate of €556200.
Here’s the statistical breakdown:
| Preview Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including €7500) | 214 |
| Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of low lots) | €389200 |
| Total Mid Lots (high estimate between €7500 and €35000) | 13 |
| Total Mid Estimate | €167000 |
| Total High Lots (high estimate above €35000) | 0 |
| Total High Estimate | NA |
The top lot by High estimate is tied between two lots: lot 22, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Portrait Ellen Frank, 1929, and lot 560, Thomas Ruff, Ohne Titel (B. Junger), 1985 (image at right, top, via Lempertz), both estimated at €20000-25000.
Here’s the list of photographers who are represented by three or more lots in the sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):
Joint Army Task Force One (12)
Thomas Struth (5)
Max Baur (4)
Bernd and Hilla Becher (4)
Gisele Freund (4)
Jörg Sasse (4)
Jan Saudek (4)
Ilse Bing (3)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (3)
William Klein (3)
Heinrich Kühn (3)
David LaChapelle (3)
Joel Meyerowitz (3)
Thomas Ruff (3)
Toni Schneiders (3)
Wolfgang Tillmans (3)
Weegee (3)
Other works of interest include lot 110, Jaroslav Rössler, Reflexionswinkel, 1960, estimated at €1500-2000 (image at right, middle, via Lempertz) and lot 196, Jörg Sasse, S-89-07-01. Giessen, 1989, estimated at €1200 (image at right, bottom, via Lempertz).
The complete lot by lot online catalogs can be found here (Photography) and here (Contemporary Art).
