E-Photo
Issue #34  10/17/2001
 
Christie's East Takes The Hit With Over 52% Buy Ins and Less Than a $½ Million Take

By Alex Novak

After a week that saw the auctions holding their own or better and had most in the photography trade breathing sighs of relief, it was bound to happen: the other shoe finally dropped. Christie's East had the unfortunate position to be the last auction up in a week that saw a gradual deterioration in results, but the real reason for the poor sales was a simple one: poor material. Most of the sale was made up of late-printed photographs and unexciting images. Even those prints that had a little interest were lost in the forest of mediocrity. Besides, everyone was tired from an exhausting week and many simply went home. I imagine that there were a number of real bargains here with the reduced reserves.

The results, however, were not pretty: $499,281 total sales, including the Christie's buyer's premium, and a meager sell-through of only 47.71%, down dramatically in both areas from the spring auction.

Only four images made it to five figures (just barely) if you include the premium (see above for Christie's premium details). Lot 14, a large format photogravure of Stieglitz's Steerage, sold for a total of $11,163, certainly a bargain. Lot 109, a late print of Alfred Eisenstaedt's Sailor Kissing Woman in Times Square, VJ Day, sold for $14,100. Lot 245, a late print of Bernice Abbott's New York at Night, needed some help from the premium to make it to $10,575. A group of 52 Muybridge plates from Animal Locomotion sold for $15,275, which made this one the high lot of the day!

Lot 216, unless it was a typo on the Christie's results sheet, must be a modern record of sorts for photography auctions. Its $24 net including premium had to be the lowest I have seen at a major photography auction over the last 20 years. Why bother?

Christie's East has become a dumping ground for its main photography auction. Now that Christie's is moving this department over to the Rockefeller offices, it is about time they took this branch more seriously. When it gets a major collection, as it did last auction, it can be a place where collectors might get a bargain. But the kind of auction just held does not do anyone any good and just gives Christie's a black eye.

Novak has over 47 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formally board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.

Novak has had photography articles and columns published in several newspapers, the American Photographic Historical Society newsletter, the Photograph Collector and the Daguerreian Society newsletter. He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, etc.