Diane Arbus. Hubert's Museum Work 1958-1963
New York: Phillips de Pury & Company, 2008. 1st Edition. Large quarto, publisher's stiff photo-illustrated paper wraps, upper wrap embossed with silver foil lettering.
Phillips de Pury & Company (now Phillips) auction catalog for an unrealized single-artist auction of American photographer Diane Arbus’s archive of photos of Times Square basement freak show Hubert’s Dime Museum. The set of twenty-seven virtually unknown early photos by Arbus were to be sold by Philadelphia book dealer Robert Langmuir, who had acquired them for $3500 from a private collector and dealer. Once the latter got wind of the auction, he sued Langmuir in federal court, claiming he had been duped and was unaware of the immense value of the photos (which were priced in the tens of thousands) when he discovered them in a Bronx storage facility unit of unclaimed items in 2002. Due to the legal dispute, Phillips officially canceled the auction on the morning it was intended to take place. This catalog contains plates of the prints alongside captions and estimates, with a foreword by cultural historian Charles Scheips on Hubert’s and the discovery that the photos were Arbus's. Illustrated in black-and-white. Minor rubbing and edgewear to wraps, else fine. Item #13630
$125.00