Photographic treasures from Luxembourg raise over €127,000 at auction

Photographs owned by the now defunct Galerie Clairefontaine in Luxembourg have raised over €127,000 at an auction in Germany.

The images were sold off at the Lempertz auction house in Cologne last Friday.

Among the art works were photos by Helmut Newton, Martin Parr, James Nachtwey and Nan Goldin, as well as Edward Steichen, Cecil Beaton and George Hurrel.

Their sale was held after gallery owner Marita Ruiter decided to close up several months ago due to ill health.

The auction, which included photos from other collections, attracted a good dozen bidders in the room as well as collectors taking part via the internet and over the phone.

Under the auspices of auctioneers Dr Takuro Ito, Prof. Henrik Hanstein and Ms Isabel Apiarius-Hanstein, the works which went under the hammer reflected the history of photography in a unique way.

Even if not all the works found a buyer, bidders were particularly impressed by a photograph by Helmut Newton and two works by Edward Burtynsky, which were sold for the top price of €7,500 net each.

Helmut Newton’s signed ‘Woman with Horse, Burbank (Los Angeles)’ from 1987, number four in a series of 10 gelatin silver prints mounted on aluminium, was among the works at last week’s auction © Photo credit: Courtesy of Auktionshaus Lempertz

The works included Newton’s Woman with Horse, Burbank (Los Angeles) from 1987, a silver gelatine print on aluminium. The photograph was signed, dated and titled in biro.

Edward Burtynsky’s aerial photographs, typical of the artist, were taken with a large-format camera, in which even the smallest details can be recognised. The two photos that sold at auction are from his Water series from 2010.

The Clairefontaine Gallery’s collection also included portraits by the Luxembourg photographer and later head of the photography collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Edward Steichen.

But only his famous photo Girl in the Pinewoods (from around 1920) was sold at auction. The new owner paid €1,512 (including the buyer’s premium) for this work.

Edward Steichen less in demand

Other photographs and silver gelatine prints by Steichen, such as portraits of Isadora Duncan (c. 1901), Mrs Eugène Meyer (c. 1910), Sadakichi Hartmann (1903) and Constantin Brancusi (1922), did not attract bids above the limit set by the seller.

If these works are offered again at a later auction with a lower estimate, it is quite possible that they will end up fetching a higher bid than was expected at the first auction.

The Painter’s Wife (1926, later print 1934) by photographer August Sander (1876-1964) was auctioned for €5,796. Incidentally, a print of the photo is in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

‘The Painter’s Wife’, by August Sander, 1934, later gelatin silver print, with photographer’s stamp on the reverse. © Photo credit: Courtesy of Auktionshaus Lempertz

A photograph of Marilyn Monroe reading, taken by Elliott Erwitt in 1956 (later print) and signed in felt-tip pen, went under the hammer for €6,300, exceeding the estimate of between €3,000 and €4,000.

A photograph of Marilyn Monroe reading by the American photographer Elliott Erwitt, from 1956, was signed in felt-tip pen in the lower right margin.  © Photo credit: Courtesy of Auktionshaus Lempertz

In May 2025, Lempertz will auction further works from the Clairefontaine Gallery’s collection. Prior to this, there will also be an exhibition at Lempertz’s locations in Brussels and Berlin in March of works from the Galerie Clairefontaine collection by the German photographer Dieter Appelt.

(This article was first published by Luxemburger Wort. Translation and editing by Duncan Roberts)