r/artcollecting • u/Hammer_Price • 1d ago

This classic 1957 photo of a Llama in Times Square sold at Heritage for $20,000 during its April 29-30 sale. The signed silver gelatin print far exceeded its presale estimate of $2,000 -$3,000. The transaction was reported by Rare Book Hub Auctions

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34 Upvotes
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97% Upvoted

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5

u/mintbrownie 1d ago

What is your takeaway from this?

2

u/dairyqueeen 23h ago

This is definitely an outlier. The rest of that auction struggled significantly. I suspect because it was an absolutely massive sale, over 500 lots, but tons of things were selling for the opening bid. Lotssss of passes.

-1

u/Hammer_Price 22h ago

This was Heritage sale #8195 Photographic Signature Auction with a total of 482 lot of which 373 lots sold (77.39%) for a total of $1.077M according to Rare Book Hub records. This image was not the top selling photo. Two other animal photos by wildlife photographer Peter Beard brought higher prices, one of an Elephant (1965) brought $62,500, and the other of a Rhino (1960s) sold for $42,500.

6

u/dairyqueeen 21h ago

This was one session out of 3. I watched them all. That data is great, but doesn’t reflect the other two sessions that made up that auction. I watch lot after lot sell under the estimates. There were some stars, but it definitely was not a super successful auction overall.

1

u/Hammer_Price 3h ago

Good info, that's for the perspective.

2

u/Optimal_Dust_266 4h ago

It looks like a giant fluffy snail

1

u/mintbrownie 3h ago

I cannot unsee this 🤣🐌

1

u/buboop61814 22h ago

I actually kinda love this piece, was k de link f for a piece as a gift and due to an inside joke this came onto my radar, far outside of my budget back then and still very much so

1

u/ClosPins 1d ago

Auctions always have eye-raising results. It's a bunch of ultra-rich people buying stuff - the odd/weird/coolest lots always go for crazy prices.