Phillips London Photographs Results; Spring 2019

London’s photography season continued this week with Phillips’ Photographs auction.

Like Sotheby’s London Photographs auction, which took place on the same day, the sales total was much lower than previous Photographs auction at £1,849,188 ($2,352,207), which may be reflective of international economic turmoil in reaction to trade wars and unpredictability. Unlike, Sotheby’s auction, however, Phillips’ brought together a more dynamic set of images from a diverse selection of photographers. 

Prints included old monochromatic masterpieces and bold contemporary work by Annie Leibovitz, Steven Klein, Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, Man Ray, Steven Meisel, Gregory Crewdson, Nan Goldin, Louise Lawler and David Lachapelle. 

The most expensive print was Man Ray’s La Priere (Prayer) with an estimate of £50,000 to £70,000 and a sale of £100,000 ($127,580), followed by Thomas Ruff’s 16h 28m/-60°  [featured] which had an estimate of £50,000 to £70,000 and a sale price of £56,250 ($71,763). The third most expensive print was a self-portrait by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy), which had an estimate of £30,000 to £50,000 and a hammer price of £50,000 ($63,790). 

View all the lots from this sale, hammer prices and more at Phillips’ page here.

This was the last photography auction of the month with no further photography-relevant auctions scheduled until June. Two new auctions have been announced for next month from Sotheby’s and Christie’s adding to one auction already listed by Christie’s and a Women in Photography auction from Phillips. See upcoming auction dates in this previous post