Becher Industrial Facades to make $150,000?

WARNING: ARTICLE CONTAINS IMAGES YOU MAY FIND DISTURBING.

A set of 12 photographs by Bernd and Hilla Becher, titled Industrial Facades, is to feature in a sale at Swann Auction Galleries on February 27.

Estimated at $100,000-150,000, the series dates to 1978 and features the artists' signatures on the reverse of each print along with a diagram of their intended layout.

Bechers industrial Swann Galleries
The Bechers produced the series in 1978

The Bechers were a German husband and wife team best known for their large format photographs of industrial buildings, executed in a uniform and distinct style that displays their sculptural and graphic qualities.

Around the time this particular set of work was created, Bernd began teaching at the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf.

His influence is evident in the work of his students, Andreas Gursky in particular - whose Chicago Stock Exchange made $3.3m last year.

Elsewhere in the sale, an albumen print of Alexander Gardner's iconic photograph of the hanging of conspirators in the murder of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 is valued at $25,000-35,000.

Alexander Gardner Lincoln conspirators
Gardner's photographs of the hanging were considered too graphic for publication at the time

Titled Thus it be Ever with Assassins, the image is one of 10 the photographer took during the execution.

Gardner (1821-1882) was one of the earliest photojournalists, whose groundbreaking work captures the great events of his era in unflinching detail.

In November 2013, a copy of his Photographic Sketchbook of the War, a record of the American civil war, sold for $192,000 at Skinner in Boston.

We have a range of art and photography memorabilia available.

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