Sotheby’s Photographs Auction Results; Oct 2018

Not only did Sotheby’s host the first Photographs auction of the season, they hosted two with 205 lots available overall.

The Photographs sale took place in New York with 129 lots available from artists such as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Robert Mapplethorpe. This auction by far out-performed the Contemporary Photographs auction with a sales total of $2,764,875.

The highest priced print went to Aleksandr Rodchenko’s Girl with a Leica (Devushka S Leikoi) which had an original estimate of $300,000-$500,000 and sold for $519,000. 

Untitled (photogram with circular shapes and diagonal line) by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was the second most expensive sale at $447,000 (original estimate of $120,000-$180,000), and Anton Giulio Bragalia and Arturo Bragalia’s Le Rose was third with a hammer price of $137,500 (estimate of $40,000-$60,000).

Herb Ritts and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy both had two prints feature in the top ten most expensive sales at the auction, while Irving Penn’s Caviar, New York, Jan 18, 2001 was the only colour print in the top ten. Monochromatic works by Edward Weston, Robert Frank and Ansel Adams rounded out the top ten.

See the full list of results here.