Christie's
France realized nearly 5 million euros for its Photographs auctions on Thursday
9 November, 2017 with the highly anticipated masterpiece by Man Ray sold at a
world record price of 2, 688, 750 euros to an anonymous telephone bidder after
a long bidding battle between 4 clients on the phone and 3 clients present in
the room.
This
photograph, formerly in the collection of Jacques Doucet, portraying Kiki de
Montparnasse with an African mask, Man Ray's muse and lover this established a new auction record for a photograph by Man Ray, for any photograph sold
in France and
established a new world auction record for any classic photograph topping the
previous record from 2006 for a print by Edward Steichen.
The Photographies sale which took place on Friday 10 November also
realized strong results for rare prints such as The Hand of Miles Davis by Irving Penn which sold for 199,500
euros, doubling its presale estimate and for Làszló Moholy-Nagy's Photogramme, Dessau which sold for 125,000.euros
.The sale offered other lots of high
quality such as the Identical Twins
by Diane Arbus which was sold for 547,500 euros, and Reclining Nude on Dark Green by Paul Outerbridge which fteched 102,500
euros after an active bidding battle. These exceptional results confirmed once
again the leadership of Christie's Photograph department in selling high
quality collections.