On November 22nd the three most expensive cameras from a serial production ever sold at westlicht auction, fetching a total price of 3,6 Million Euros, the most expensive Leica M3D (above) was sold at 1.68 million Euros, M3D bid won by LIFE magazine photographer David Douglas Duncan, for more details see the press release below.
22nd Camera Auction and 7th Photo Auction in November 2012
THE THREE MOST EXPENSIVE CAMERAS FROM A SERIAL PRODUCTION EVER SOLD AT WESTLICHT AUCTION!
3 LEICA CAMERAS FOR 3,6 MILLION EUROS!
With a price of 1,680,000 Euro the legendary M3D (opening bid: 150,000 Euros) owned by the LIFE photographer and Picasso intimate David Douglas Duncan is the most expensive camera from a serial production ever.
It is the second-highest price ever paid for a camera.
The gold-plated ‘Luxus’ Leica, dated 1929 sold for 1,020,000 Euro (opening bid: 70,000 Euro), was the second most expensive camera of the auction.
The very first serial-production M3 (1953, serial number 700001), formerly owned by Willi Stein, chief engineer of Leitz, was sold at a top price of 900,000 Euro (opening bid: 80,000 Euro)
These three cameras are therefore the most expensive cameras produced in a series, ever sold. The camera sold for 2,160,000 Euro at the WestLicht auction in may was a prototype.
The three Leica MP cameras of the Magnum photographer Paul Fusco achieved sensational 858,000 Euro, more than ten times of the opening bid.
The first Leica owned by the famous Magnum co-founder Robert Capa (8.000 Euro) was worth 78,000 Euro to a collector.
Among the cameras constructed by the Soviets for their planned lunar expeditions and offered for the first time here, the “Arsenal Kiev SKD Space Camera” (10,000 Euro) achieved a price of 57,600 Euro.
Altogether, 92 percent of the camera lots were sold, and the total volume of sales was 8,240,000 Euro.
7th WestLicht Auction of Photography
Excellent results for photography too
The highest bid at the Photography Auction was recorded for the presumably largest private collection of NASA Photographs, documenting the entire US space program from 1961 to 1974 and also the Apollo-11 lunar mission with Neil Armstrong in 300 photographs and slides – this lot fetched 240,000 Euro.
A set of more than 300 photographs from the Soviet space program (Lot 1211) achieved 72,000 Euro, clearly exceeding its opening bid of 25,000 Euro.
In the area of historic photography, there was great interest in Hugo Henneberg’s Landscape with Sheep (opening bid: 18,000 Euro, Lot 1014) from 1901, which a bidder secured for 31,200 Euro. Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare (Lot 1092) also proved itself a coveted collector’s item: opening at 7,000 Euro, it finished at 12,600 Euro.
Cindy Sherman’s works also turned out to be in high demand: Lucille Ball (opening bid: 1,500 Euro, Lot 1160) was sold for 7,800 Euro, while Untitled (Towelhead) (opening bid: 1,400 Euro, Lot 1161) went for 4,800 Euro – both results exceeding the appraisals significantly.
Click here to see and download the list of results of the 22nd WestLicht Camera Auction and the 7th WestLicht Photography Auction: resultlist WestLicht Auction May 2012(PDF, 200KB)
The next WestLicht Auction is scheduled for May 2013.
