Sotheby’s November Auction Results

From 10th November to 16th, Sotheby’s had promised two photography auctions and a mixed-media sale with popular photographers’ work on offer. But as schedules were rearranged and auctions merged, the slew of  auctions was reduced to one photography sale and one mixed-media:

After hosting an exhibition of photographs from the collection of Robin Woodhead, Sotheby’s London presented the photographs along with other works from the private collection. Artists included Wolfgang Tillmans, André Kertész and Ai Weiwei with estimates ranging from £800 to £12,000.

The most expensive photographic lot was Ai Weiwei’s New York Photographs 1983-1993, which was a portfolio of 12 prints by the artist. The lot was expected to fetch £8,000-£12,000 and reached a final bid of £10,080. Coming second was Wolfgang Tillman’s John & Paula, Sitting, Bottomless (NSFW) which had an original estimate of £4,000-£6,000 and achieved £5,040. Finally, Ray K. Metzker’s Atlantic City, 66 FT-7 (from Under the Boardwalk), which was expected to raise £2,500-£3,500 and received a hammer price of £3,150.

On Wednesday, Photographs, Including Work from the Collection of Ernesto Esposito, was billed as Sotheby’s big photography auction this month with 172 lots on offer from artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Bruce Weber and Helmut Newton. Hosted in Paris, the auction offered prints with no reserves and with estimates as low as €100 – providing buyers with some really affordable investments. The auction came to a close with a sales total of $878,736.60.

The most expensive lot was Shirin Neshat’s ‘Untitled’ (from ‘Women of Allah’), which had a €50,000-€70,000 estimate and achieved €63,000. Nick Brandt’s Lion Couple, Serengeti outperformed its initial €8,000-€12,000 estimate by selling for over double its top estimate at €31,500. In joint third was Desiree Dolron’s Exteriors XII and Josef Koudelka’s Versailles, France both with a pre-auction estimate of €20,000-€30,000 and both achieving a hammer price of €25,200.

Two further photography auctions are expected to be held this month, by Phillips London, both taking place early next week. Come back soon to see the results of those, or view lots on offer by clicking on the relevant auction title in this post.

feature image by Jonathan talbert