Christie's Photobook Auction Results

The results of the Christie’s Photobook auction are in and there seems to have been about a million dollars of sales. I’ve listed the approximate sale price after the title of the book. And, just for fun, I divided by the number of photos reproduced in each book by the selling price to figure each photographer’s “worth.”

Here goes…

Ed Ruscha, Various Small Fires: $14,000 or $875.00 per image. (This one is signed so knock off $78.29 for each of the 16 photos to compensate.)

Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Fotografias: $10,000 or $333.00 per image.

August Sander, Antlitz Der Zeit: $13,000 or $216.00 per image

Victor Palla and Costa Martins, Lisboa: $19,000 or $125.00 per image. (This one is signed so knock off $26.82 for each of the 152 photos to compensate.)

John Davies, Green and Pleasant Land: $4,400 or $118.00 per image. (This one is signed so knock off $15.32 for each of the 37 photos to compensate.)

David Bailey, Box of Pin Ups: $4,200 or $166.00 per image.

Chris Killip, In Flagrante: $3,200 or $74.00 per image. (This one is signed so knock off $12.52 for each of the 43 photos to compensate.)

Robert Frank, Flower is...: $6,000 or $74.00 per image.

Robert Frank, Les Americans: $4,800 or $57.00 per image

Daido Moriyama, Shashin Yo Sayanora (Bye Bye Photography): $7,200 or $49.00 per image. (This one is signed so knock off $9.78 for each of the 145 photos to compensate.)

Atget Photographe de Paris: $2,800 or $29.00 per image.

Henri Cartier Bresson Images a la Sauvette (Decisive Moment): $3,600 or $28.00 per image.

Note: Since Ed Ruscha is the winner so to speak, I was compelled to choose the “signing compensation” amount based solely on a string of numbers that sounded good to my ear when spoken aloud.

The following books came with actual prints so the fun ends here.

The Yevgeny Khaldei maquette for Ot Murmanska Do Berlina went for $61,000. (Estimate $36,000 to $49,000)

Paul Graham A1 The Great North Road, Grey Editions 1983 hardcover with the 8X10 color print went for $22,000. (Estimate $14,000 to $18,000)

The Tony Ray Jones Portfolio of 15 gelatin silver prints did not sell. The low estimate of $3,600 apparently wasn’t met.

If you have the catalog, the results according to lot number can be found at the link below. Remember that the original results are in pounds and include Christie’s premium already added. My results above are already coverted roughly into US dollars.

http://www.christies.com/auction/results/results_lotlist.asp?saleno=CKS7395