Auction Houses Find Success Despite Weak Economy

Depending on who you talk to, "auction week" in New York was either a disappointing reminder of a woeful economy or an opportune time to bargain-hunt. During the last full week of October, auction houses across the city placed an estimated 1,800 photography lots under the hammer. And while the best known artists performed well, contemporary art on average sold for far less than expected.

Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg had the biggest sales, each topping $2 million. Over a two-day period, Sotheby's brought in $2,691,454 for 212 lots of photographs from the Museum of Modern Art. Another 84 lots from Berenice Abbott's New York photographs, under the provenance of the Museum of the City of New York, totaled $669,498. Sotheby's third sale of miscellaneous photographs sold for $1,438,512, led by Man Ray's"Le Bateau Ivre" ($174,500) and George Hoyningen-Huene's "Bathing Suits: A.J. Izod, Ltd., London" ($109,940).

Christie's 201-lot offering on Oct. 22 sold for $2,438,685. Man Ray's "Calla Lilies" earned the highest bid at $185,500. Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936" brought in $141,500.

Led by Richard Avedon's portraits of political power brokers from the mid-1970s, Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg's two-day auction took in $2,181,114. Avedon's portraits of George Bush, Sr., Donald Rumsfeld, Katharine Graham and Nelson Rockefeller, among others, were originally commissioned for an article in Rolling Stone and sold for $161,300. Also at the auction, a portfolio of 14 Memphis pictures by William Eggleston sold for $152,200.

Contemporary art sales were mixed, and bargains were plentiful. Photos by contemporary artists like Joel-Peter Witkin, Cindy Sherman and Michael Kenna usually sold for less than the lowest estimated price. Auction specialists say the overall slowdown in the economy affected the newer artists.

"It's difficult to say why some things sold and some things didn't," says Chris Mahoney, a photography specialist at Sotheby's. "Perhaps it's a reflection on the uncertainty of the economy [that] there isn't the breadth of interest or buyers out there at the moment. Maybe there are a number of people who would have been at the auctions, but for various reasons don't feel convertible spending the money right now."

Daile Kaplan of Swann Art Galleries, which held an auction of 19th and 20th Century photographs Oct. 21, points to a transition in the marketplace. "I see a sort of cautiousness on the part of collectors," she says. "One area most impacted is emerging or young collectors. We're not seeing the activity we saw a year ago because there's just not that much disposable income."

Still, there were a few pleasant surprises when the bidding began. Sotheby's estimated that Hoyningen-Huene's advertising shot for Izod would sell for somewhere between $20,000-$30,000. When the hammer fell the final bid soared to $92,000. Mahoney says the rarity of the print and its iconic stature led to the surprisingly heavy bidding.

"This is the only vintage print [of this image] we've ever seen, so it's phenomenally rare," Mahoney says. "The combination of it being a photographer's most famous image and an iconic image taken outside the photographer's oeuvre...just made it irresistible to collectors."

Overall, Mahoney feels like the auction was a success. "The fact that we did so well with so much of the material in the MOMA and the Museum of the City of New York [sales] is testament to the fact that, even in uncertain times, people will come out for quality material," he says.

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