Sotheby‘s sale of 175 Masterworks to Celebrate 175 Years of Photography on December 11 and 12 in New York realized a record $21,325,063, led by Alvin Langdon Coburn’s Shadows and Reflections, Venice, at $965,000, and Alfred Stieglitz’s Evening, New York from the Shelton at $929,000 — both well over high estimate. The sale attracted many leading dealers and collectors and the evening sale especially boasted the largest number of people in a New York photography auction salesroom in many years. And in an era when phone, order, and online bidding usually far outnumbers the bidding in the room, this sale featured a majority of winning bids coming from the room, making for real excitement from beginning to end.
The audience was comprised of a who’s who of American photography dealers and collectors — though not any European dealers in the room and seemingly few on the phones. Among the main winning bidders were photography dealers Gabriel Catone (who usually bids for collector John Pritzker, Jeffrey Fraenkel, Michael Shapiro, Edwynn Houk, Robert Koch, Hans Kraus, Dan and Mary Solomon, Robert Burge, Bruce Silverstein, Kevin Moore, Peter MacGill, Alex Novak, Jill Quasha, Matthieu Humery, Nelson-Atkins curator Keith Davis, and collector Michael Mattis, among others.
World auction records were set for Alvin Langdon Coburn, August Sander, Tina Modotti, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lee Miller, Walker Evans, and Martin Munkácsi. The total exceeds the previous record for a Photographs auction by over $6 million. That sale, Important Photographs from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Including Works from the Gilman Paper Company Collection, in February 2006, had an estimate of $4–$6 million and totaled $14,982,900, well over high estimate. This sale fell close to the midpoints of the estimate of $13–$20 million. (Estimates do not include the buyer’s premium, sale totals do.)
The full top ten list from the sale is below:
• Alvin Langdon Coburn: Shadows and Reflections, Venice, 1905, (estimate $350/500,000), sold for $965,000
• Alfred Stieglitz: Evening, New York from the Shelton, 1931 ($200/300,000), sold for $929,000
• László Moholy-Nagy: Photogram with Pinwheel and Other Shapes, ($300/500,000), sold for $773,000
• August Sander: Handlanger, ($350/500,000), sold for $749,000
• Gustave Le Gray: The Pont du Carrousel seen from the Pont des Arts (Pont du Carrousel, vu de l’est), ($150/250,000), sold for $725,000
• Gustave Le Gray: The Pont du Carrousel seen from the Pont Royal (Pont du Carrousel, Vu du Pont Royal), circa 1859, ($150/250,000), sold for $773,000
• Edward Weston: Charis, Santa Monica, 1936, ($200/300,000), sold for $653,000
• Eugène Atget: Corsets (Boulevard de Strasbourg), 1912, ($100/150,000), sold for $509,000
• Robert Frank: South Carolina (Charleston), 1955–56, ($150/250,000), sold for $497,000
• Tina Modotti: Workers’ Parade, 1926, ($200/300,000), sold for $485,000
Denise Bethel, Chairman, Sotheby’s Photographs, Americas, commented: “This record-breaking sale has been a celebration of photography — the most profound, inventive, and beautiful artistic medium of our time. The masterpieces in the auction spanned the mid-nineteenth century to the present day and featured the extraordinary talents that have always characterized the very best photographers. It is therefore entirely fitting that the proceeds will be used for the innovative educational work of Joy of Giving Something Foundation. Throughout my 25 years at Sotheby’s, we have handled the most significant single-owner sales of Photographs to come to auction, whether from museums, corporations, or private collectors. The collection put together by Howard Stein was unprecedented in its scale, scope, and ambition, and now 175 Masterworks To Celebrate 175 Years of Photography: Property from Joy of Giving Something Foundation takes its place at the pinnacle of Photographs sales.”
Christopher Mahoney, Head of Sotheby’s Photographs Department, said: “The extraordinary prices for so many diverse works and a total of $21.3 million in the 175 Masterworks To Celebrate 175 Years of Photography: Property from Joy of Giving Something Foundation are resounding signs that the market for classic photographs has never been stronger. With eight prices over $500,000 and numerous records set, the auction demonstrated the enormous appetite among a broad base of collectors for top-tier photographs from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Both of our top lots — Alvin Langdon Coburn’s Shadows and Reflections, Venice, from 1905, and the 1931 Evening, New York from The Shelton, by Alfred Stieglitz — were sought by numerous collectors before two determined bidders drove prices to multiples of the high estimates. Both pieces are now among the most expensive photographs ever sold at auction, along with other works in the sale by artists such as Moholy-Nagy, Gustave Le Gray, and August Sander.”
Stephen Perloff
Editor
The Photograph Collector
