Phillips London Photographs Auction, Spring 22

After spring photography auctions from Sotheby’s and Christie’s came and went with some minor sales of note, Phillips held their high quality photographic prints for their annual spring auction. Taking place in London, the 25th May sale brought together 135 lots from artists past and present such as Peter Beard, Irving Penn and Peter Lindbergh, and Wolfgang Tillmans, Cindida Hoffer and Cindy Sherman,. Estimates ranged from £1,000 to £340,000. 

The auction brought in a sales total of £2,198,637 ($2,749,615), with the most expensive lot going to a collection of Gustave Le Gray albumen prints estimated to sell for £100,000-£150,000, but almost tripling the top estimate with a hammer price of £327,600 ($412,317). Second most expensive lot was Edward Steichen’s famous Gloria Swanson, New York  print, which sold for £277,200 ($285,953) after an initial estimate of £240,000-£340,000. In third place was Peter Beard’s unique Orphaned cheetah cubs @ Mweiga nr. Nyeri (KENYA) for The End of the Game / Last word from Paradise, which far outperformed its estimate of £20,000-£30,000 by selling for a substantial £126,000 ($158,583).

See more lots from the auction, and their hammer prices at Phillips’ webpage here.

image by kenny-luo