Millon & Associés and the photography specialist Christophe Goeury conducted the sale of an exceptional group of 600 lots comprising more than 800 prints, all original, unique and signed by Théodore Blanc and Antoine Demilly, which came from the artists’ families. The auction was conducted Monday, October 13, at Drouot Montaigne. The auction realized a total of $455,735, and buyers included a French museum, galleries in France and the United States, as well as private collectors of photography and contemporary art.
Two exhibition prints, lots 535 and 536, both titled “Gouttes d’Eau (Water Droplets),” circa 1950, were sold for $10,579 each, a world record for photographs by Blanc & Demilly and the highest price achieved in the sale.
Photographs that were shown in the retrospective exhibition “Blanc and Demilly †Photographers in Lyon 1924‱962” shown in June 2000 at the Georges Pompidou Centre were especially popular: “Fourvière dans la brume” sold for $8,463, four times its estimate; “Carrefour de l’Annonciade” realized $7,161, and “La Place Saint Jean” achieved $6,428, both twice their estimates.
Other notable sales included “Ampoules (Light bulbs),” which sold to a private collector for $6,836, and “La Nageuse,” which realized $5,208. An album of views of Lyon sold for $6,510.
All prices given include the buyer’s premium. Prices were converted from euros to US dollarsat a rate of ¬‱ to $1.302.
Alexandre Millon, Société de Ventes Millon & Associés, is at 5, avenue d’Eylau, 75116. For information, www.millon-associes.com or 33 1 47 27 95 34.
