ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A vintage collection of Ansel Adams photographs fetched $56,000 at a Sotheby’s charity auction that is expected to raise at least $1 million for the George Eastman House film and photography museum.
Rare photos dating to 1850 were donated along with cameras and photography books for a four-day fundraiser this week to help the upstate New York museum bolster its recession-hit endowment fund.
More than 100 items were sold by Sotheby’s auction house in New York for $486,000 on Monday night. The highest winning bid was $64,000 for a 1931 print of “Conscious,” Paul Everard Outerbridge’s photo of two eggs in front of a curtain.
The auction continues online until Thursday.
The Adams portfolio auctioned Monday comprised 10 photos dating from 1936 to 1959 and 10 artist proofs signed by the renowned nature photographer.
Among the treasures on offer were classic images by Edward Weston and Edward Steichen and portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy.
They were donated by 227 artists, collectors and dealers, and none came from the museum’s archives. More than 400,000 highly valued photographs have been gathered up since 1947 at Eastman House, the colonial revival mansion of Kodak founder George Eastman.
Eastman House “has showcased and supported the celebrated artists of photography, and now we are turning to the artists to support the museum,” said its director, Anthony Bannon. “We are pleased and humbled by how enthusiastically those in the photographic world have embraced this effort.”
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Online:
https://www.igavelauctions.com
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