artnet Auctions - Recent Auction Results Show Strong Demand for Fine Art Photographs

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Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:49am EDT

artnet Auctions - Recent Auction Results Show Strong Demand for Fine Art
Photographs

NEW YORK and BERLIN, June 29 /PRNewswire/ -- artnet Auctions sale of Icons:
20th-21st Century Photographic Portraits showed strength in the photographs
market as the ten-day online photographs auction concluded June 25 with
$135,000 in sales (including 10% buyer's premium).  The sale featured over 200
original fine art photographs of legends of fashion, film, music, politics,
sports, arts and literature from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna.

Top Lots Sold
Screen stars led the sale with spirited bidding for photographs of Hollywood
legends Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Grace Kelly and Marilyn
Monroe.  The top lot sold was a rare 1956 portrait of Audrey Hepburn by Yousuf
Karsh.  This exquisite portrait, which had never been offered at auction,
realized an impressive $12,650.  Photographs of screen siren Marilyn Monroe
also commanded top prices.  Five of the top ten lots sold were portraits of
the actress taken by Bert Stern.  Among them, the stunning chromogenic print
Marilyn Monroe: From The Last Sitting, "I Beg of You", 1962 fetched $1,650,
more than double the low estimate.  Other top lots included a 1931 gelatin
silver print of Greta Garbo by Clarence Sinclair Bull, which sold for $1,842
against an estimate of $800-$1,000 and Marlene Dietrich, by George Hurrell,
which realized $1,760 against an estimate of $1,000-$1,500.

Legendary Artists
There was also strong demand for portraits of artists including Salvador Dali,
Frank Stella and Pablo Picasso.  Two 1970 portraits of Salvador Dali by Marc
Lacroix sparked frenzied bidding; Dali and His Muse, Gala realized $6,053,
400% above the low estimate and Dali's Profile commanded $5,610, 370% above
the low estimate.

Other top lots demonstrated the appeal of subjects ranging from astronauts to
country music stars.  A rare 1969 photograph of the NASA Apollo 11 Moonwalk by
Neil Armstrong realized $3,750, 90% above the low estimate while Mark
Seliger's Johnny Cash, Hendersonville, Tennessee, 1992 sold for $3,025, 21%
above the low estimate.

"The success of the sale points to the continued demand for high quality
photographs at the right estimates," said Bill Fine, President of artnet
Worldwide.  "Buyers and sellers alike are increasingly turning to artnet
Auctions due to the quality of the works offered on our site, and our
comparatively low 10% buyer's and seller's premiums."

Note: The sold values above include artnet Auctions' 10% buyer's premium.

Visit artnet Auctions at www.artnetonlineauctions.com.

About artnet:
artnet has been online since 1995 and is host to approximately 2,000,000
visitors each month. Through its Price Database of over 3.8 million auction
sales results and its Gallery Network of over 2,200 galleries worldwide,
artnet is the leading online resource for the international art market. With
the new Online Auctions, artnet has added a transaction platform to its
successful information services.

www.artnet.com | www.artnet.de | www.artnet.fr

artnet Worldwide Inc., 61 Broadway, 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10006-2701,
U.S.A.

SOURCE  artnet

Sarah Bradley of artnet, +1-212-497-9700 ext. 197, or sbradley@artnet.com
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