Our younger daughter was in town doing PR work for a Swiss company that was showing their wares at Christies and we went into New York City to see what she was up to and to meet with some other friends for lunch. Simultaneously a massive auction was taking place (See: NY Times – Christie’s Has Art World’s First $1 Billion Week).

Among the many paintings and sculptures were a few photographs, most of them by Cindy Sherman. This is one of them. According to a card next to the photograph: “Cindy Sherman (b. 1954). ‘Untitled 65’: signed, numbered and dated ‘Cindy Sherman 1/10 1981’ (on the reverse). Color coupler print. 24×48 in. (60.9 x 121.9 cm.). Executed in 1981. This work is one from an edition of 10.”

It was estimated to sell for $US 600,000 – $800,000 and actually sold for $US783,750. Seems like a lot, but peanuts compared to the Van Gogh “Laboureur dans un champ“, which fetched $81,312,500 and the Da Vinci “Salvator Mundi“, which is expected to fetch in excess of US100 million when it goes on sale on Wednesday.

As I was taking my picture I realized that I could see my own reflection in the glass. Moreover, I couldn’t figure out a way to avoid it. So I’ve now made it a feature of the photograph. Appropriation art à la Richard Prince? Some kind of comment on the state of contemporary photography? Maybe I’m onto something here. Don’t think it would fetch close to $US800,000 though.