"Richard Avedon, self portrait, New York, ca. 1963." Photograph by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

The Richard Avedon Foundation is parting with sixty-five Avedon prints at Christie’s in Paris this fall.   The sale includes fashion photos and portraiture spanning Avedon’s entire career, estimated to gross about $6 million. This is first time the foundation has consigned to auction.

The sale will be held on November 20th to correspond with Paris Photo, the annual photography fair mounted in the Carrousel de Louvre.

The top projected lot is the largest existing print of the sinuous photo “Dovima With Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris,” which hung in Avedon’s studio. It is estimated to sell for between $500,000 to $700,000.

Avedon died in 2004 at age 81.

Portraits include black and white depictions of Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon. A set of four images of the Beatles from 1967, is estimated to fetch $300,000 – $500,000. Another set of the same prints set the auction record price for Avedon when they sold for $464,000 at Christie’s in New York in 2005.

All proceeds will go toward the creation of an endowment for the foundation to maintain the Avedon archives and education programs.

"Dovima with elephants, evening dress by Dior, Cirque d'Hiver, Paris, August 1955," Photography by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

"Marilyn Monroe, actor, New York, May 6, 1957," Photography by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation