Auction
The Year of the Rabbit at Christies
Tom Wesselmann, Mouth #8 oil on canvas 77 x 94 in. Painted in 1967. $2,000,000-3,000,000 Hammer price $1,600, 000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Milton H. Greene (1922-1985), Marilyn Monroe (‘Black Sitting’), 1956 Fifteen gelatin prints $10,000-15,000 Hammer price $8,000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Photographer Unknown Marilyn Monroe, first Playboy cover, December 1953 Gelatin silver print United Press Association credit reproduction limitation stamps (on the verso) 8 3/8 x 6 5/8 in $10,000-15,000 Hammer price $14,000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Earl Moran, Marilyn Monroe, 1950s 4 gelatin silver prints, printed later Estimate $4,000-6,000 Hammer price $11,000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Tom Keller, Marilyn Monroe on Red Velvet, 1949 6 chromogenic digital prints, printed later each 16 x 15 ¾ in. $5,000-7,000 Hammer price $11,000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Bunny Yaeger Sandra Settani, centerfold playmate, April 1963 ‘dye transfer’ layout board 17.5 x 22.5 in $2,000-3,000 Hammer price $1,400 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Photographer Unknown, Brigitte Bardot, cover, March 1958 Gelatin silver print Sitter credit and sate in pencil (on the verso) 11 ¾ in. x 9 in. $4,000 -6,000 Hammer price $19,000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Herb Ritts, Cindy Crawford, ‘Skinsuits’, July 1988 Five gelatin silver prints One with blindstamp, each with various annotations/notations in pencil/red wax pencil (in the margin) Est. $10,000-15,000 Hammer price $17,000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Sante D’Orazio, Rachel Williams, ‘Rachel, Rachel’, February 1992 Four gelatin silver prints Estimate $5,000-7,000 Hammer price $6,000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Herb Ritts, Elle MacPherson, May 1994 seven gelatin silver prints $12,000-18,000 Hammer price $9,500 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Herb Ritts, Brigitte Nielsen, ‘Gitte the Great’, December 1987 Gelatin silver print Estimate $3,000-5,000 Hammer price $4,500 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Herb Ritts, Stephanie Seymour, March 1991 Eleven gelatin silver prints Estimate $20,000-30,000 Hammer price $18,000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Francis Giacobetti, Deborah Jo Fondren, June 1978 Chromogenic print, printed c. 1995 Estimate $2,500-3,500 Hammer price $2,800 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Peter Beard, Iman, ‘Beauty and the Beasts”, January 1986 3 ‘dye-transfer’ boards Estimate $8,000-12,000 Hammer price $7,000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Matthew Rolston, Heidi Montag, cover, September 2009 Chromogenic print Est. $5,000-7,000 Hammer price $3,800 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Tom Wesselmann, Mouth #8 oil on canvas 77 x 94 in. Painted in 1967. $2,000,000-3,000,000 Hammer price $1,600, 000 © CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2010
Cindy Crawford, Tom Wesselmann, Brigitte Bardot and Salvador Dali… Only Hugh Hefner’s Playboy could bring all these names in one room. The Christies auction featured 124 lots with works by Herb Ritts, Francis Giacobetti, David Bailey, Patrick Demarchelier and many more. The 1958 cover photograph of Bardot by an unknown photographer did more than triple the high estimate and some of the originals centerfolds mounted on boards initaled by Hef fetched more than some of the original photographs, showing that for once it was not about the signature, the stamp or the edition but simply about the image.
Gilles Decamps
Christie’s New York Saleroom
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020
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