In the recent London Contemporary Art sale season, Phillips was the only one of the three major auction houses to bring a meaningful selection of contemporary photography to market – both Christie’s and Sotheby’s failed to have even a single photograph in their Evening sales, and neither of their Day sale photo offerings merited a full statistical tally.
At Phillips’ 20th Century & Contemporary Art sales last week, the photography on offer performed solidly. While the top lot Wolfgang Tillmans abstraction didn’t sell, basically everything else did. With an overall Buy-In rate under 12% and one other positive surprise (an early Thomas Ruff head portrait), the Total Sale Proceeds for photography came in above £800K, above the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
| Summary Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Lots | 17 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | £765000 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | £1136000 |
| Total Lots Sold | 15 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 2 |
| Buy In % | 11.76% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | £818900 |
Here is the breakdown (using our usual Low, Mid, and High price tier definitions):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 0 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | NA |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | NA |
| Low Buy In % | NA |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | £0 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | £0 |
| Mid Total Lots | 6 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | 6 |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | 0 |
| Mid Buy In % | 0.00% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | £106000 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | £119600 |
| Total High Lots | 11 |
| Total High Lots Sold | 9 |
| Total High Lots Bought In | 2 |
| High Buy In % | 18.18% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | £1030000 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | £818900 |
The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 39, Wolfgang Tillmans, Freischwimmer 27, 2003, estimated at £210000-300000; it did not sell.
The top photography outcome of the sales was lot 40, Cory Arcangel, Photoshop CS: 110 by 72 inches, 300 DPI, RGB, square pixels, default gradient ‘Spectrum’, mousedown y=23900 x=11650, mouseup y=32650 x=11650, 2009, estimated at £100000-150000, sold at £252000 (image above, via Phillips).
93.33% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there was just 1 positive surprise in the sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (image above, via Phillips):
Lot 256, Thomas Ruff, Portrait (J. Blum), 1989, estimated at £7000-9000, sold at £26460
The complete lot by lot results can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).
