NEW YORK, NY.- A gelatin silver print of Robert Mapplethorpe’s sultry Shoe (Melody), 1987, was the top lot in Heritage Auctions’ Nov. 19 Vintage & Contemporary Photography Signature® Auction, easily beating its pre-auction estimate of $30,000+ to finish the auction with a final price realized of $47,800.

The auction, which realized $521,588 on 213 lots, took place at The Ukrainian Institute of America at The Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion (2 East 79th Street at 5th Ave.).

“The Mapplethorpe lived up to its billing as the auction catalog cover,” said Rachael Peart, Consignment Director for Photography at Heritage Auctions, “and collectors showed their reverence for the piece and the photographer in the form of spirited bidding and a respectable final price realized.”

Collectors at The Fletcher-Sinclair also responded enthusiastically to the wide array of Contemporary offerings, with Marilyn Minter’s ecstatic 2010 Chromogenic, diasec mounted Solaris, one of an edition of five, leading the way with a final price realized of $20,315.

American photographer Shirin Neshat also proved quite popular in the auction, with several selections creating substantial collector buzz. Her Untitled (from Rapture Series), 1999, a gelatin silver print, realized $14,340 from a determined collector.

Diane Arbus, a contemporary of Mapplethorpe, has been a solid commodity at auction in recent years, and the Nov. 19 Heritage event proved no different as her unsettling and masterfully composed Woman in a Wheelchair, PA, 1970, a gelatin silver print by Neil Selkirk, produced after the artist’s suicide, realized $10,755, easily besting it’s pre-auction estimate of $6,000+.