It wouldn’t be a record for a work by Robert Mapplethorpe. That still belongs to the series of 14 photographs Phillips de Pury sold for $225,000 in 2008. Still, Mapplethorpe’s “X,Y and Z portfolios, 1977-81,” is estimated to sell for close to $100,000 later this week at Phillips de Pury’s London sale of Photographs, where high-value works by Michel Journiac, Peter Lindbergh, Richard Avedon, and Irving Penn will also be featured.
A series of other substantial sales are expected in the eclectic auction. Irving Penn’s iconic 1951 image of 22-year old Audrey Hepburn, is estimated at $38-$53,000. And Peter Lindbergh’s image of model Helena Christensen, which first appeared in Italian Vogue, is expected to sell in the same range. Michael Reisch, Nicolas Faure, and Desiree Dolron, , younger European stars of photography will also be represented.
Read more at Phillips de Pury.
