Eggleston Auction Nets $5.9 Million

The auction of William Eggleston prints that we reported on in February significantly exceeded estimates, totalling $5,903,250 for all 36 images — more than double the $2.7 million originally expected. Most of the images fetched more than $100,000 a print, but the stand out piece of Eggleston’s famous tricycle went for an astonishing $578,500, far beyong the $200,000-$300,000 estimate. Other major sales were Untitled, 1973, Untitled, c. 1971-1974, Untitled, 1973, and Untitled, c. 1971-1974. Only one lot sold under estimate, Untitled, c. 1971-1974.

This auction was interesting in that the prints were a marked departure from Eggleston’s previous efforts. They were all 60×44 in size, and limited to just two prints of each image. According to PDN, these new, larger prints were only possible due to Eggleston using digital pigment prints for the first time, as opposed to his traditional dye-transfer process. PDN also points out that these large editions had significantly higher estimates than many of Eggleston’s smaller works, which are also currently up for auction.