Auction 1267 on Friday, 30th May 2025 and Auction 1269 on Saturday, 31st May 2025

Classic photography and contemporary classics characterise the offerings at Lempertz in this busy spring season with names such as T. Lux Feininger, Thomas Struth, Helmut Newton and Anton Corbijn.

Two important collections make up the largest group of lots within the photography on offer this season: The private collection of the Berlin gallery owner and publisher Roland Angst (Only Photography), who died in 2022, with a focus on fotoform, American photography and contemporary Japanese photography, which will be auctioned over a period of two years, as well as the holdings of Galerie Clairefontaine from Luxembourg, the successful auction of which Lempertz already began last autumn. The artistic scope of Marita Ruiter's gallery, which was one of the most important players in the international art scene for three decades and gave important impulses to the Luxembourg photography scene, is also reflected in the selection of around 60 photographs that will be offered on both consecutive auction days.

The season's highlight is the glamorous “Tied-up Torso (Henrietta Ficellée)” from a private collection in southern Germany, created in 1980 in Ramatuelle on the Côte d'Azur, where photographer Helmut Newton, a virtuoso of erotic staging, had owned a house since 1964.

With a format of around 100 x 100 cm, this artist proof is a rare and outstanding example of the Berlin-born artist's mastery of composition. The high-quality print comes from the Frieder Burda Collection, Baden Baden, from whence it passed to its current owner. On 30th May, the work will be auctioned in Cologne with an estimated price of €60,000 to €80,000. In addition to this classic black and white print, a second important photograph by Helmut Newton will be offered for sale, namely a large-format nude photograph of the supermodel “Kristen McMenamy” in colour, photographed in Monte Carlo in 1995, estimated at €25,000 to €30,000.

The Bauhaus photographs from the estate of Xanti Schawinsky stand out as vintage prints from the field of classic photography of the 1920s, including the motif “Der Bau als Bühne, Bauhaus Dessau, 1927” by T. Lux Feininger, which Herbert Bayer selected in 1938 for the catalogue cover and poster motif of the exhibition “bauhaus 1919-1928” at the MoMA in New York, estimated price €4,000 to €5,000.

The complete portfolio ‘25 nus femmes’ with highly aesthetic nudes in outstanding vintage quality by Sasha Stone, which the photographer gave to an artist friend in 1936, is a real rarity. It will be coming up for auction with an estimated price of €12,000 to €15,000.
Various black and white fashion and portrait photographs by Horst P. Horst – including the iconic “Round the Clock I, New York, 1987” - Diane Arbus, Irving Penn and Robert Mapplethorpe represent American classics of their genre with estimates of between €7,000 and €9,000 and €10,000 and €15,000 respectively. 'New Colour' photography is represented by four works each by Stephen Shore and Bruce Wrighton, with estimates of between €1,500 - 2,000 and €5,000 - €6,000.

Further highlights of the auction are two large-format photographs by Mitch Epstein, including the motif ‘Berlin-Lichtenberg, 2008’ from the year in which the New York photographer received the ‘Berlin Prize in Arts and Letters of the American Academy in Berlin’ (€8,000 to €10,000). The three wall-sized portraits of musicians with cult status by Anton Corbijn are likely to be of interest not only to fans of independent music, with estimated prices of €4,000 - €5,000 and €8,000 - €10,000.

Auction 1269
Day Sale Contemporary Art and Photography

Important works of contemporary photography will be auctioned as part of the Day Sale on the second day of the auction (31st May): “Gerhard Richter 1, Köln, 1993” by Thomas Struth from his famous “Portrait” series, taken with a plate camera and printed in life size, is the photo highlight of the Contemporary Art auction and comes from a Californian private collection, estimated price €30,000 to €40,000. The C-print “Treppenhaus München” from 1984 (as a new print from 2012) in wall-sized format belongs to the group of architectural photographs by Günther Förg and has an estimated price of €20,000 to €25,000. Two multi-part photographic works from the Clairefontaine Collection by Dieter Appelt - this year's winner of the ‘Gerhard Altenbourg Prize’, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday - will be on offer with estimated prices of €10,000 to €15,000 and €15,000 to €20,000 respectively.

Jan Bykowski
Press and Public Relations
info@lempertz.com
Tel. 0221 925729 -57