MONROVIA, CA JOHN MORAN AUCTIONEERS
OCTOBER 24, 2017
California & American Fine Art Auction
$1 million
On October 24, John Moran Auctioneers brought to market 200 lots of fine art by California and American artists.the sale included names such as Guy Rose, Ben Abril, Edgar Payne, Maynard Dixon, Phil Dike and more, attracting a large crowd for the sale. Highlights included a circa 1939 painting by Abril that depicted Grand Central Public Market on Hill Street in Los Angeles, which had a presale estimate of $8,000 to $12,000. The work set a new world auction record for the artist when it achieved $27,000. Selling for the same price was a watercolor by Emil J. Kosa Jr. depicting figures on a California ranch near the coastline (est. $4/6,000). According to the auction house, the piece was “hard-won by a telephone bidder who had to outbid a determined floor buyer.” Shortly after, a second Kosa, with a presale estimate of $3,000 to $4,000, sold for $6,600.
The auction house adds, “Local Southern California buyers were particularly interested in participating in bidding on Sierra Mountain landscapes—one buy even reportedly telephoned bidding from his cabin in the Sierras.”among those pieces were Paul Grimm’s Upper Sierras (est. $8/12,000) at $11,400 and Theodore Lukit’s Solitude (est. $3/5,000) at $3,300.
Other notable sales were Dixon’s Inyo Mountains — Evening (est. $20/30,000) at $30,000; Payne’s Glacier (est. $30/40,000) at $36,000; and Maurice Braun’s Autumn
Glow (est. $30/50,000) at $36,000.