Swann Galleries opened their fall 2021 season with the single-owner sale of The Virginia Zabriskie Collection on Tuesday, September 21. The sale brought $1,297,867, about $100,000 more than the pre-sale high estimate, with 85% of the lots on offer finding buyers, many achieving records for artists and mediums alike.
Man Ray ready-mades led the auction with six works landing in the top 20 lots of the sale and four of the six earning records, including the top lot of the auction: Perpetual Motif, a circa 1922–33 metronome with lenticular printed eye, at $161,000. Additional records for Man Ray ready-mades featured Enough Rope II, a rope and wooden baton conceived in 1962 and executed in 1973, at $27,500; Lèvres d’Or, a 1967 hollowed out leather-bound book/jewlery box, at $25,000; and Matchbox (Boîte d’Allumettes), a matchbox with a photograph adheared to the top with various color felt samples inside executed circa 1955–65, at $20,000.
Reflecting on the sale, prints and drawings director Todd Weyman noted, “The Virginia Zabriskie Collection at Swann revealed that the audacious artist roster put together by this pioneering New York gallerist was still very much fresh and desirable to collectors today.”
Swann Auction Galleries
104 E 25th St #6
New York, NY 10010
