Friday, April 3, 2009

Auction Results: Photographs, New York, April 1, 2009 @Phillips

Given the challenging times, the spring Photographs sale at Phillips De Pury & Company in New York performed surprisingly well. The total proceeds just missed the pre sale total Low estimate, coming much closer than either Sotheby's or Christie's had in the previous days. The larger number of lots of offer and the generally decent sell through rate vaulted Phillips into the second place spot for total proceeds this season.

The summary statistics are below:

Total Lots: 279
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1995100
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $2908000

Total Lots Sold: 187
Total Lots Bought In: 92
Buy In %: 32.97%
Total Sale Proceeds: $1890876

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 204
Low Sold: 134
Low Bought In: 70
Buy In %: 34.31%
Total Low Estimate: $1061000
Total Low Sold: $708001

Mid Total Lots: 70
Mid Sold: 49
Mid Bought In: 21
Buy In %: 30.00%
Total Mid Estimate: $1347000
Total Mid Sold: $825625

High Total Lots: 5
High Sold: 4
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 20.00%
Total High Estimate: $500000
Total High Sold: $357250

A stunning 95.72% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range (with 32.62% above). Phillips clearly figured out the formula for setting estimates that were both enticing and generally on target in this more conservative economic environment.

There were plenty of surprises (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) in this sale: a total of 9 lots generated some bidding heat, although most were lower priced lots. Here's the list: lot 4, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Island of Siphnos, Greece, 1961/later at $18750, lot 75, Bruce Weber, Zor and Zor's Back, 1982, at $2500, lot 76, Bruce Weber, Matt, Marine from Mideast, 1983, at $2750, lot 82, Flip Schulke, Muhammad Ali boxing underwater, 1961/later at $12500, lot 116, David Drebin, Movie Star, 2004, at $16250, lot 178 Tina Modotti, Woman with Flag, Mexico City, 1928/posthumous 1992 at $9375, lot 183, Ernst Haas, Homecoming Prisoner, Vienna, 1946/later at $2750, lot 198, Cindy Sherman, Untitled (Madonna), 1975/later at $6250, and lot 215, Michael Kenna, Wind Swept Beach, Calais, France, 1999, at $6875.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company
450 West 15th Street
New York, NY 10011

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