Prints by Morris Schamberg, Henri Cartier-Bresson and El Lissitzky set records at Christie's most recent auction.

 

 

 

By Holly Stuart Hughes From PDNOnline

 

Prints by Morris Schamberg, Henri Cartier-Bresson and El Lissitzky greatly exceeded auction-house estimates at Christie's in New York Wednesday, setting new auction records for those artists.

Amid a broad array of work by 20th century masters, a 1918 Schamberg print fetched $390,000, making it the highest-selling lot in the auction. The price far exceeded the estimate of $5,000 to $7,000.

A gelatin-silver print of "God," made in the year of Schamberg's death, shows a cast-iron plumbing trap attached to a block, a Dada sculpture attributed to Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, according to a Christie's catalog note.

The prints at Wednesday's auction came from the estate of Thomas T. Solley, a former director of the Indiana University Art Museum who began collecting photographs in the 1970s. The auction of his collection brought in a total of $4,328,460. A second auction of photographs at Christie's on Thursday brought in another $1,231,800.

The second-highest-earning photo Wednesday was a 1924 portrait by Lissitzky of the collage artist Kurt Schwitters, which sold for $252,000. Its estimate had been $6,000 to $9,000.

Cartier-Bresson's "Italy 1933," estimated at $40,000 to $60,000, fetched $204,000.

A print of Steichen's "Flatiron Building, Evening, 1905," printed in 1960, fetched $144,000, and was estimated to sell for $40,000 to $60,000. It was no record for Steichen, however. Last year, a vintage 1904 Steichen print went for $2.9 million at Sotheby's, setting a record that still stands for the most expensive photograph sold at auction.

Also in the sale of the Solley estate, a 1948 image by Irving Penn, shot in Lima Peru for Vogue magazine, sold for $132,000. Another Penn image, "Summer Sleep, New York, 1949" sold for $72,000.

A 1968 Richard Avedon photo of model Lauren Hutton sold for $90,000.

Among the living photographers represented in the auction were William Klein whose image "Model in Mirror, Broadway & 43rd St., N.Y., 1959" sold for $33,600. A 1988 fashion image by Peter Lindbergh of Linda Evangelista and other models sold for $12,000.

Compared to the high sales figures of the Feb. 14 auction, the next day's auction seemed more subdued. The high seller of the day was Penn's "Hat, New York, 1960," which sold for $60,000.

A print of Ansel Adams' "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941," printed and signed in 1980, sold for $42,000. Last October, a 1940 print of the same image, sold at auction for $609,600, setting a new auction