Press | Phillips

23 November 2022

Phillips’ Photographs Auction Achieves £2.3 Million and Sets a World Auction Record for Richard Avedon’s The Beatles Portfolio

Phillips’ Photographs Auction Achieves £2.3 Million and Sets a World Auction Record for Richard Avedon’s The Beatles Portfolio

 

London, 22 November 2022

Sale Total: £2,339,270 / $2,776,947 / €2,699,284

 

Lots Sold: 103 | Lots Offered: 136

Sold by Lot: 76% | Sold by Value: 84%

 

 

Yuka Yamaji, Head of Photographs, Europe, and Rachel Peart, Head of Department, London, said, “We are thrilled with the sale total of £2.3 million. Richard Avedon’s The Beatles Portfolio sold for £809,000, the highest price realised for any work in a London Photographs auction. Our 16th edition of ULTIMATE was 97% sold and saw a world auction record achieved for Prince Gyasi’s The Arrival, 2022, which sold for £44,100. ULTIMATE ELLEN VON UNWERTH, which marked the premiere of Polaroids by the celebrated photographer at Phillips this November, was 100% sold. We are proud to hold the world auction record for Ellen von Unwerth and, in this sale, we went on to achieve her second and third highest prices. A View from the Garden: Photographs from a Private Cotswolds Collection realised strong results, notably for two works by Peter Hujar, one of which features in the top ten. Man Ray’s portrait of Meret Oppenheim, circa 1930, achieved £32,760, more than doubling the estimate, whilst Stephen Shore’s 1975 Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California tripled its estimate. All nine lots by Wolfgang Tillmans sold above their estimates, and great results were also achieved for Zanele Muholi. The depth of bidding from over 300 participants from 36 countries worldwide reaffirms the global appetite for exceptional photographs. We look forward to continuing this momentum into our Spring 2023 season in New York and London.”

 

Top Ten Lots

Lot

Description

Estimate

Price Achieved

64

Richard Avedon, The Beatles Portfolio: John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Paul McCartney, London, 1967

WORLD AUCTION RECORD

FOR THE BEATLES PORTFOLIO

£700,000-900,000

£809,000

$960,364/€933,505

65

Richard Avedon, Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California, June 14,1981

£55,000-75,000

£85,680

$101,711/€98,866

33

Wolfgang Tillmans, Collum, 2011

£50,000-70,000

£75,860

$91,241/€88,689

63

Zhang Huan, Family Tree, 2000

£60,000-80,000

£75,600

$89,745/€87,235

123

Ellen von Unwerth, Chimney Sweeper, Kate Moss, Paris, 1995

£2,000-3,000

£47,880

$56,838/€55,249

59

Prince Gyasi, The Arrival, 2022

WORLD AUCTION RECORD

£18,000-22,000

£44,100

$52,351/€50,887

121

Ellen von Unwerth, Splendor in the Garden, Kate Moss, Miami, 1993

£2,000-3,000

£44,100

$52,351/€50,887

2

Peter Hujar, Christopher Street Pier #2 (Crossed Legs), 1976

£12,000-18,000

£44,100

$52,351/€50,887

67

Helmut Newton, Sie Kommen, Naked, Paris, 1981

£30,000-50,000

£44,100

$52,351/€50,887

62

Sohei Nishino, Diorama Map Rio de Janeiro, 2011

£35,000-55,000

£40,320

$47,864/€46,525

 

New Auction Records

Lot

Description

Estimate

Price Achieved

55

Carl Corey, 2412 • Luck, Wisconsin from Habitat, 2008

£10,000-15,000

£12,600

$14,957/€14,539

 

*previous record price: $625 set in 2017

59

Prince Gyasi, The Arrival, 2022

£18,000-22,000

£44,100

$52,351/€50,887

 

*previous record price: €20,160 set in 2022

107

Eamonn Doyle, K-19, 2018

£7,000-9,000

£8,820

$10,470/€10,177

 

*previous record price: £5,250 set in 2019