Sotheby’s Modernism Results, Nov

The Modernism: Photographs from a Distinguished Private Collection sale was an unusual auction held on the same day as the Photographies auction at Sotheby’s Paris headquarters. The auction was billed as follows:

‘The collection celebrates Modernism photography through the lens of Edward Steichen, Alexander Rodchenko, Paul Strand and Margaret Watkins. Masterworks from the collection includes Cello Study of André Kertész, considered to be one of his most radical work together with important photographs from the first half of the 20th century.’

The auction was small with 11 lots on offer and only 3 sold at the close of sales, this was reflected in the conservative hammer prices. Despite only selling 3 of the lots the sales total realised €237,500 ($269,396).

The highest hammer price went to Man Ray’s portrait of Alberto Giacometti with an estimate of €80,000-€120,000 and realising a price of €100,000. Paul Strand’s Boat and Sheds, Gaspe came second with a sales price of €75,000 ($85,072), followed by Winter, Yosemite Valley, California by Ansel Adams at €62,500 ($70,893) after an estimate of €50,000-€80,000.

See the other lots that were available in this auction here.

This auction is the penultimate photography auction of the year, with Sotheby’s online auction Photographs Online scheduled to complete this Monday (12th). This means that this year’s data is almost ready to be crunched to discover what trends occurred, what additions were made to the list and how this year compares to others, all of which will be revealed over the coming weeks on Photography At Auction – watch this space.