Photo auctions at Christie's and Phillips de Pury & Co. totaled $19.5 million in April. This amount is $1.5 million more than the auction houses reported from April 2010.

Phillips reported that auction sales records were set for several photographers, including Sebastião Salgado, Steve McCurry, Pieter Hugo and Sandy Skoglund. The top item at the Phillips auction was Cindy Sherman's "Untitled #278," which sold for $242,500. The total sales for the Phillips de Pury & Co. auction topped $5.8 million.

Richard Avedon's "Marilyn Monroe, New York City, May 6, 1957" received the highest bid at the Christie's auction, at $482,500. Christie's also featured a dye-transfer print of William Eggleston's iconic "Memphis (Tricycle)" photograph, Robert Frank's "Peru, 1948" and several Irving Penn photographs.

The Christie's sales totaled $8.5 million.