A Massive Ansel Adams Auction at Sotheby's Is Expected to Fetch Between $4 and $6 Million USD
The collection includes over 100 photographs, including some of especially rare prints.

Sotheby’s will auction an impressive collection of Ansel Adams’ photographs spanning nearly seven decades for A Grand Vision: The David H. Arrington Collection of Ansel Adams Masterworks, currently slated for December 14. The auction will include over 100 photographs, including some of especially rare prints, and holds an estimated pre-sale value of $4.2 million to $6.2 million USD.
One of Adams’ most well-known photographs, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, will be the centerpiece of the auction. Not much larger than a sheet of paper at 9.25 by 12.125 inches, this gelatin silver print is reportedly the earliest print of the photograph to come up for sale and is expected earn a price tag between $700,000 and $1 million USD.

Ansel Adams, ‘The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming, 1942.’Sotheby’s
Larger pieces will also be up for grabs; a 84.75 by 119.75-inch print of Yosemite Valley created for the American Trust Company circa 1950 is expected to sell around $70,000 to $100,000 USD while The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming, 1942, commissioned by the Department of the Interior, is expected to fetch a price between $400,000 and $600,000 USD. According to Sotheby’s, the Grand Tetons print is especially rare as one of under ten mural-sized prints Adams reproduced.
“A Grand Vision: The David H. Arrington Collection of Ansel Adams Masterworks” will take place on December 14 at Sotheby’s New York. For more details on the auction, visit Sotheby’s website.
Other upcoming auctions include “Show Me the Signs,” which will include protest signs against racial injustice by celebrities like Cardi B, Billie Eilish and Jim Carrey. The proceeds from the sales will go to supporting the families of Black women killed by the police.