Last at Sotheby’s, bidding began for Photographs from the Polaroid Collection with the opening session bringing a remarkable $7,197,439, well-above expectations (est. $2.9/4.5 million) and with every lot finding a buyer. With more than 300 hundred lots left to sell today, the running total has already exceeded the low estimate for the entire sale (est. $6.9/10.7 million). Competition was fierce with a full salesroom competing against numerous telephones resulting in as many as ten different bidders vying for certain works. The sale was 100% sold with nearly 87% of the lots achieving prices at or above their estimates. Artist records were set for Ansel Adams and Lucas Samaras, in addition to records for photographs at auction by Chuck Close, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and David Hockney, among others.
Highlighting the evening session were works by Edwin Land’s great friend and collaborator, Ansel Adams. His iconic mural-sized prints achieved the top five prices of tonight’s offering, led by Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, which sold for $722,500 after a battle between four different bidders. That price was well-above the high estimate and a record for the artist at auction (lot 100, est. $300/500,000).
Among the first three lots of the evening’s offering was Chuck Close’s 9-Part Self Portrait, a unique collage of large-format Polapan prints which sold for $250,500, more than four times the high estimate and record for a photograph by the artist at auction (lot 3, est. $40/60,000). The auction record for a photograph by Andy Warhol was broken twice – Self-Portrait (Grimace) a unique large-format Polaroid Polacolor print sold for $146,500 (lot 52, est. $10/15,000) and then, with more than seven bidders competing, his Self-Portrait (Eyes Closed) soared past a high estimate of $15,000 to sell for $254,500 (lot 53, est. $10/15,000).
