Icons of Glamour & Style

Not to be outdone by Sotheby’s and Phillips’ recent slew of photography auctions, Christie’s held Icons of Glamour & Style: The Constantiner Collection.

Held in Pairs, the auction brought together 75 lots from artists such as Herb Ritts, Peter Lindbergh, Helmut Newton and Irving Penn. Christie’s billed the sale as:

‘assembled by New York collector Leon Constantiner that celebrate glamour, elegance and idealised beauty. Our first sale, held at Christie’s New York in 2008, presented works from his collection creating a landmark event in the Photography auction market. These sales emphasize the importance of great editorial photographers who capture our ideals of beauty so memorably in the inspirational post-war decades of fashion and style magazines.’

The sale, which celebrated ‘some of the 20th Century’s most celebrated, truly iconic images of glamour and style’ brought in a combined total of €2,643,625.

The most expensive lot was the iconic Richard Avedon image ‘Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver’, so ingrained within fashion culture that a print hangs in the Dior apartment in Paris. The edition was numbered 30 of 50 with an estimate of €250,000-€350000 and a hammer price of €262,000.

Andy Warhol’s Statue of Liberty images were estimated to sell for €40,000-€60,000 but far exceeded expectations by selling for €212,500. Irving Penn rounded out the top three with Harlequin Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn) [featured image] selling for €200,000.

View all the lots from this auction here.

Taking place from now until next Thursday is Christie’s Online Photographs: New York, New York auction. You can view the schedule of upcoming auctions in this previous post.