Helmut Newton died exactly a year ago at the wheel of his Cadillac at the age of 83. A highly talented fashion photographer, Newton is best known for his black and white photographs of tall and slender women and for his celebrity portraits.
Shortly before his death, the artist bequeathed more than a thousand of his most emblematic photos to Berlin, the city where he was born. This collection - a brilliant sample of the depth of his work - has been on display since last June at the new Helmut Newton Foundation Museum
At auctions, over fifty of the artist?s photographs come up for sale every year, with a bought-in ratio of below 25%. Of those sold, 60% go under the hammer for less than USD 6,000. The highest ever price paid for a photograph by Helmut Newton was USD 155,000 at Christie?s on 27 April 2004 for a 1.5 metre work entitled ?Panoramic Nude with Gun, Villa d?Este, Como? (1989). Already in 2002, a lot comprising two photographs (?Sie Kimmen, dressed, Paris? / ?Naked, Paris?) had fetched USD 160,000. Today, the most sought-after and the most famous works are Newton?s ?Big Nudes?. The sharp escalation of prices for Newton's work drove up his auction turnover from USD 40,000 in 1998 to USD 600,000 in 2002.
|
