Hell Yeah! Weston Nude sells for $1.6 million

jgcull

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That is so cool! (And here we are giving our prints away in exchanges. Hold on to those, now, ya' hear?)
 

arigram

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In other news, a nude photograph of the French first lady Carla Bruni was sold for 91,000 US dollars,twenty times the amount that it was going for.
 
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keithwms

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Let's see, would I rather have the Bruni or the Weston on my wall... Bruni or Weston, Bruni or Weston...

Fortunately this difficult decision isn't one I will need to make, my credit limit doesn't quite go that high.

Seriously though, this is wonderful news, and it shows that the perceived value of EWs intuitive / nontechnical approach is as high as ever, as is the art world's appreciation for individual, handcrafted photographic output.

I keep asking people to tell me what's the most expensive inkjet print ever; as yet I have not heard anything past a few thousands bucks, and that was for a mural print for which the materials + printer costs were already in the thousands.

Ladies and gentlemen, we need to make more silver prints and keep the faith! Even though few of us are anywhere near the level of EW, the value of our work is going up not down.
 
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mark

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Cool.

But I am a bit confused with the estimates listed on the page. would ($600/900) mean the photo was estimated to go between 600 and 900 dollars?
 

erikg

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mark said:
Cool.

But I am a bit confused with the estimates listed on the page. would ($600/900) mean the photo was estimated to go between 600 and 900 dollars?
Click to expand...

That would be an estimate of 600,000 to 900,000 dollars. No chance of any Weston going for 600 beans! Unless it was a Stan Weston, who shoots weddings on the weekends. To think that Edward sold his prints for 10-15 dollars, he would be amazed.
 

mark

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I thought that was way too low and figured I misunderstood or the appraiser needed a good smacking.
 

Jose A Martinez

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In his Day Books, Edward Weston describes how he trade prints for clothing when he lived in Mexico City. The taylor had a great eye for long term investments.
 

Jim Noel

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I guess my $200 EW image of Charis on the dunes just went up again.
 

eddym

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keithwms said:
Ladies and gentlemen, we need to make more silver prints and keep the faith! Even though few of us are anywhere near the level of EW, the value of our work is going up not down.
Click to expand...

And we have another thing in common with Weston: we will all, like him, be dead some day. I hope we are happy with the fruits of our postmortem print sales as much as he must be with that 1.6 mil.
 

erikg

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billschwab said:
I had an ebay miracle happen a few years back where I got a beautiful little signed, vintage 4x5 EW portrait of an unknown woman from 1939.

Cost... $500.00
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Wow! I stand corrected. Can't be too many deals like that out there. I understand his portraits do command less than his personal work, but still. That is a great find.
 

mjs

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One way of getting to see wonderful prints vicariously is to go to Sotheby's web site and sign up for e-mail notification of their photography auctions. They'll send you a link in an e-mail before the auction and you can look through the auction catalog, and then they send another link afterward, with the photographs and the prices they sold for. It's a wonderful way to browse and imagine how you would waste the family fortune.

I saw the Weston in the pre-auction catalog and fell in love with it right then and there. It went right up into my top 5 Westons. I can't say that I'd be willing to pay almost $2 million for it (should I be filthy rich,) but I'd like to be close friends with whomever bought it, so I could go look at it from time to time. *Sigh*

Mike
 

vet173

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mjs said:
I'd like to be close friends with whomever bought it, so I could go look at it from time to time. *Sigh*

Mike
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I'm inclined to think the people who are buying these items are only looking at it as an investment. Do you think it will really be up on the wall? Good info about signing up for the preview. Remember, it's not how much it cost, it's how much you have left after.
 

mjs

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My own personal opinion is that if I can't look at it, what's the point? It's a picture! I feel sorry for those sad folks who buy these things and then lock them away in a vault, afraid to look at them, afraid to risk any "damage" to their "investment". I guess that's why I'm not rich.

Mike
 

arigram

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Btw, this is the photo of Bruni I mentioned:
 

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