News just in that furniture and decorative arts owned by photographer Richard Avedon, who died last year, are due to go under the hammer at Sotheby's in October.
Should be an interesting sale, not least because Avedon is credited by some with turning American fashion photography into the almost-nearly-high-art form it currently enjoys. Avedon's eye for beautiful, revealing portraiture was legendary: subjects spoke of the amazing "intimacy" which he managed to achieve (the word is that of biographer Lucasta Miller, who was photographed by Avedon not long before his death), while critic Susan Sontag described Avedon's work as presenting "one of the exemplary photographic careers of this century".
Lots of sumptuous items on offer, if you can stump up the prices: a Navajo serape is expected to fetch as much as $20,000-30,000, while an Egyptian stucco mummy mask will be put on $7,000-10,000. (Four pieces from Avedon's fine art collection have already gone, you'll be distressed to hear.) Time to max that credit card ...
