After a long torpor, the photography market has suddenly become a hotbed of activity. Into this building interest, Christie’s brings Man Ray’s Noire et Blanche estimated at €1m-1.5m. The well-known image of Kiki de Montparnasse was first published in the Paris edition of Vogue in 1926:

Christie’s France is pleased to announce that it will offer “Stripped Bare: Photographs from the Thomas Koerfer Collection,” comprising 73 lots and led by the emblematic Man Ray masterpiece, Noire et Blanche, formerly in the collection of Jacques Doucet, on November 9, while collectors are gathered for the Paris Photo Fair.

Thomas Koerfer is a highly-regarded film director, writer as well as producer, whose films include TheDeath of the Flea Circus Director, Henry’s Romance, The Passionate and Embers. From childhood Koerfer was surrounded by the art collection of his parents and in 1992 he established his own collection by concentrating on modern and contemporary photography, and some years later he added paintings and sculptures from the same era. The entire collection focuses on the body and human form as well as the various aspects of sensuality and sexuality and represents the most comprehensive and nuanced group of works on this theme. Ten years after starting to collect photography, Thomas Koerfer was elected President of the Board of the Foundation of the Fotomuseum Winterthur in 2002 and also became a member of the board of the Kunsthalle Zurich, a position he held for ten years. His collection was exhibited in 2007 at CO Berlin, followed by a show at the Kunsthaus Zurich in 2015.