A rare photo album made by Ed van der Elsken sold for $21,250 at an auction in New York, setting a new record the Dutch photographer and filmmaker.

Made ca. 1951, the untitled album comprises 27 black and white photographs depicting Parisian street scenes, as well as portraits of Dutch photographers Emmy Andriesse and Ata Kando (who was married to Elsken). Five bidders competed for the work during a photography sale on March 11 at Swann Galleries in New York, where it was estimated at $10,000–$15,000. Curator Hans Rooseboom at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam purchased it on behalf of the museum.

This is the first time the work has ever been sold on the market. It has been in the Elsken family’s hands for seven decades. The result surpasses the last record for an Elsken photo album at auction, set by his 1962 book of 99 photographs titled Crazy World. That work sold in Haarlem, Netherlands, in November 2013 for $16,300.

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On Thursday in Paris, ahead of a marquee cross-category auction, Sotheby’s held an Impressionist and modern art evening sale that brought in a total of €36.5 million with premium ($43 million). Led by auctioneer Aurélie Vandevoorde, Sotheby’s Paris director of the Impressionist and modern art, the auction realized a sell-through rate of 88 percent across 31 lots sold.

Forty-two percent of the lots sold above the high estimate, 39 percent sold within their estimates, and just 6 percent landed below expectations. Four lots went unsold and two were withdrawn before the sale’s start.

The result surpasses last year’s equivalent sale in Paris that was pushed to June because of the pandemic and brought in a much lower total of €10 million ($11.8 million). This sale also brought in more than the house’s October Paris-based “Modernités” evening auction, which generated €28 million ($33 million).

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On Thursday, during a sale in London, Sotheby’s auctioneer Oliver Barker unveiled a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat that the house will offer for sale in its New York contemporary art evening sale on May 12. Titled Versus Medici (1982), the painting is expected to fetch a price of $35 million–$50 million. If the work reaches its low estimate, it will be among the most expensive works by the artist ever sold at auction.

The painting shows influence from Basquiat’s time in Modena, Italy, where he had his first solo show, at Galleria d’Arte Emilio Mazzoli in 1981. The title of the piece references the Renaissance-era Medici family, and it has some of the signature Basquiat motifs—a full skeletal figure, a crown, anatomical drawings and scrawled phrases in the background—that are coveted by collectors.

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On Wednesday, a large-scale drawing by William Kentridge sold for £682,750 ($935,000) at an auction in London, setting a new record for a drawing by the South African artist.

Large Typerwriters (2003), a diptych made using charcoal and pastel, depicts two vintage typewriters. 5 bidders competed for the work during a contemporary art sale at Bonhams in London, where it was estimated at £350,000–£550,000 ($480,000–$755,000). It went to a buyer in Asia.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 painting Warrior, from the collection of Aby Rosen, sold for HKD 323.6 million ($41.7 million) with buyer’s premium at a Christie’s sale on Tuesday. Warrior now ranks among the most expensive Basquiat works ever sold at auction.

Ahead of the auction house’s back-to-back 20th century art and Surrealist evening scheduled to take place in London later today, the painting, which depicts a crowned figure wielding a sword, sold during a live-streamed single-lot sale titled “We Are All Warriors.” It was led by Christie’s global president Jussi Pylkannen, who was based in London.

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