Art News

Auction of Mike Mitchell’s Beatles Photographs He Took as a Teen Soars Over $300,000 at Christie’s

NEW YORK, NY (REUTERS).- A trove of unpublished photographs of The Beatles’ first U.S. concerts taken by a Washington teen-ager in 1964 took in more than $360,000 at auction, selling for many times their estimates. Forty-six lots of about 50 pristine black-and-white photographs of the Fab Four that had sat in a box for 45 years totaled $361,938, including commission at the sale Wednesday night, Christie’s said. The collection had been expected to fetch about $100,000. Bidders paid anywhere from $813 to $68,500 for Mike Mitchell’s gelatin silver prints which chronicled The Beatles’ appearances in Washington and Baltimore. Every work sold, most all exceeding the pre-sale estimates. In one striking shot, the band members were photographed at a news conference from behind with each of their heads encircled by a thin halo of light. The 16-inch by 16-inch print fetched the top price and was the last lot of the