Phillips’ Photographs Auction Results

Not to be left out, Phillips has hosted its first photography auction of the year with Photographs held in New York on Thursday, along with an auction of photographs from a private collection. The auction brought together 195 lots from artists such as Peter Beard, Dorothea Lange, Irving Penn, William Eggleston and contemporary artists such as Ahmet Ertung, Mario Testing, Wolfgang Tillmans, Annie Leibovitz and Sally Mann.

The most expensive lot was Helmut Newton’s Sie Kommen, Paris (Dressed and Naked), which is a collection of four prints presented together, with all four of the prints the first in an edition of three. The collection was estimated to sell for $600,000 to $800,000 but reached far above that with a hammer price of $1,820,000 making it the most expensive lot of the year so far and setting a world record for the artist, whose previous record was only set last year (May 2018). Recording the lot as a single work of art (as referenced in the artwork’s title) means that the piece is not only the most expensive sale this year (so far) but is also listed at number 21 in the top 50 list of the Most Expensive Photographs Sold At Auction – the third addition this year.

Robert Frank’s US 285, New Mexico stratospherically out-performed its original estimate of $25,000-$35,000 by selling for $187,500, matching Peter Beard’s Tsavo East (early 60’s) which had an estimate of $150,000-$250,000.

View all the results from this auction at Phillips’ Photographs webpage here.

* click the titles to view the images