Date: Fri 23-Oct-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Getty

Full Text:

J. Paul Getty Museum Purchases Dorothea Lange Photograph

NEW YORK CITY -- With a full salesroom and lively audience, Sotheby's sale of

photographs fetched $3,563,225, one of the strongest totals for a various

owners' photography sale in recent years and Sotheby's best photography

auction.

Of the numerous artists' records set, the most exciting was Dorothea Lange's

"Human Erosion in California," also known as "Migrant Mother, Nipomo,

California" (est $100/150,000), which sold for an outstanding $244,500 to the

J. Paul Getty Museum, setting a world record for the artist at auction.

Another record individual photograph was Charles Sheeler's "Abstract-Ford

Plant," which fetched a stunning $233,500 (est $30/50,000).

By assembling a sale of fresh-to-the-market material, judiciously estimated,

Sotheby's produced a sale that continued its pattern of ever-increasing totals

for various owners' photography auctions in recent years. Sotheby's on-target

total (approximately $3.6 million against its predicted estimate of $3/4.5

million) and high sales rate -- both by dollar, 84 percent, and by lot, 77

percent - defied the recent trend of photography sales elsewhere, and even

surpassed Sotheby's total in April 1998.

In total, Sotheby's sold five individual photographs in the over

$100,000-range, a record for the week. Other artists' records included Diane

Arbus's classic image, "Identical Twins, Roselle, N.J." (est $70/100,000),

which sold for $101,500, and the very early Brett Weston "Untitled Study of

Books" (est $10/15,000), which brought $41,400.