Photographs from Sotheby’s spring auction

Taking place online, the March-April Photographs auction from Sotheby’s came to a close with a sales total of $2,994,875. The auction, which was due to take place live in New York, was rearranged to go ahead exclusively online. Though most of the catalogued prints were available, 28 lots were withdrawn from the auction and are expected to possibly be available later in the year.

The auction was billed by Sothebys as:

‘Sotheby’s spring Photographs auction features an exceptional range of 19th, 20th, and 21st century works by masters of the medium. Highlights include rare photographs by Roger Fenton, Gustave Le Gray, August Sander, Anton Giulio and Arturo Bragaglia, László Moholy-Nagy, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Lewis Baltz, and Diane Arbus. The auction also features provocative contemporary works by Tseng Kwong Chi, Hank Willis Thomas, Christian Marclay, Roe Ethridge, Shirin Neshat, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Struth, and much more. ’

Unsurprisingly, the sales results were more modest than auctioneers had estimated when items were consigned months ago, and that is largely thought to be down to the COVID-19 virus that is sweeping the globe. Though Sotheby’s has sought to keep auctions in action, through the use of remote bidding, it has [understandably] had a noticeable effect on hammer prices as investors take fewer risks at this time.

The most expensive lot was Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s Photogram ‘Cover for the magazine “Broom”’, which was estimated to sell for $400,000 to $600,000 and sold for $524,000.

Though Laszlo’s print was the most expensive at the auction, the biggest sale was arguably Christian Marclay’s Memento (UB40), which had an initial appraisal of $50,000 to $70,000 but sold for more than twice its top estimate for $162,500. The mural-sized print was made in 2008, over 80 years since Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s print.

Rounding out the top three most expensive prints at the auction was a 1902 photo from Alfred Stieglitz titled The Hand of Man, which saw a hammer price of $112,500 after an estimate of $80,000 to $120,000. 

View all of the lots on Sotheby’s auction page here.

Image: Kenny Luo