Record-breaking sales at the Masterpieces of Design & Photography Auction

As promised Christie’s Masterpieces of Design & Photography auction saw the sales of several high-priced photographic prints including a million-dollar record-breaking sale.

Taking place in Christie’s London headquarters the auction brought together 29 lots ‘pairing seminal design with some of the most iconic photography produced in the 20th century’. Within the auction there were photographic prints from artists such as Diane Arbus, Thomas Struth, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Richard Avedon and Andreas Gursky, to name a few.

The most expensive print, and most expensive lot in the auction, was El Lissitzky’s Self-Portrait (‘The Constructor’) which sold for $1,240,897 (£947,250) and is a world record for the artist – as well as slipping the print into the Top 50 Most Expensive Photographs Sold At Auction. It wasn’t the only print at this auction to enter the top 50 list with Edward Weston’s famous Shell (Nautilus) selling for $674,977 (£515,250).

Thomas Struth’s Mailänder Dom (innen), Mailand came in third with a hammer price of £419,250 ($549,217).  All in all the auction realised a sales total of £6,421,500 ($8,412,165) – the most successful of the photography-inclusive auctions so far this year.

Already, this year has out-performed 2018 in relation to the most expensive photograph to sell at auction with Lissitzky’s portrait selling for over a quarter of a million more than Newton’s Panoramic Nude with Gun – 2018’s most expensive photograph. Will Lissitzky’s print hold firm for the rest of the year? Or could there be another record-breaking sale this year? With a series of photography-specific auctions lined up for April, we may not have long to wait.