REFCO CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION TO BE SOLD AT CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK THIS APRIL & MAY Photographs From The Refco Collection to be auctioned April 25, May 5 & May 10, 2006 at Christie's
New York – Christie’s is delighted to disclose full details of the much-anticipated sale of the Refco Contemporary Photography Collection. Comprising of more than 500 photographs, the Collection will be sold in 340 lots spread across three auctions. Approximately 200 lots will be sold during the Photographs auction on April 25. On May 5, a dedicated Refco Collection Evening Sale will showcase over 40 of the top works from the Collection. Finally, the remaining lots will be incorporated into the Post-War and Contemporary Day Sale, to be held on May 10.
A seminal event for collectors across the globe, the vast majority of the lots will be offered without reserve, and the Collection is expected to realize in excess of $5 million.
Amy Cappellazzo, International Co-Head of Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Department, and Joshua Holdeman, International Director of Christie’s Photographs department, said, “The Refco Collection is an outstanding assemblage of contemporary photographs. With an emphasis on the curatorial and intellectual, the works together provide a highly influential international review of contemporary photography and its developing role as a fine art medium in its own right.”
The fabled art collection, well known and well respected by art experts worldwide, was the subject of a 2003 catalogue Subjective Realities and graced the walls of Refco’s offices in New York and Chicago. The works were acquired over three decades under the direction of Frances Dittmer, the ex-wife of the former company chairman Thomas Dittmer, and the collection’s long-time curator, Adam Brooks.
The photographs were removed from the offices in November and December of last year. The Collection is being sold by order of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Refco Inc. filed for Chapter 11 on October 17, 2005.
Refco Collection Evening Sale and the Post-War and Contemporary Day Sale
May 5 and 10
Offering a comprehensive overview of the evolution of post-war and contemporary photographs, the 140-lot selection made for the Evening Sale and the Day Sale include key works by masters of contemporary art history. These masters provoked and pushed the traditional boundaries associated between art and photography, a constant theme the Refco curators embraced as the Collection was built over 30 years.
Important influences on the later generation of artists, works by Richard Avedon and William Eggleston are featured, including Andy Warhol, Artist, New York, New York, August 20, 1969, printed 1975 by Avedon (estimate: $100,000-150,000) and Eggleston’s Memphis, circa 1969-70 (estimate: $40,000-60,000). Classic masters of contemporary photographs, their direct influence on artists such as Cindy Sherman and Matthew Barney are well-documented. Works by Barney are included in both auctions, including CREMASTER 1: Ms. Goodyear, 1995 (estimate: $120,000-180,000) and OTTOdrone (manual) A, 1992 (estimate: $50,000-70,000), while an important Sherman, Untitled #95, 1981, is an Evening sale highlight (estimate: $200,000-300,000).
The use of photography to explore conceptualist ideas is a recurrent thematic thread that runs throughout the collection, and Untitled, 1973 by Charles Ray (estimate: $120,000-180,000) is a fine early example with John Baldessari’s Beach Scene/Nuns/Nurse
