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After a white glove sale in January, the Scottsdale Art Auction returns with an $11 million sale
Scottsdale Art Auction preceded its normal April sale with a special auction in January that offered bidders museum-quality works from the Leanin’ tree collection. Not only did every piece—nearly 600 of them in all—find a new home, many of them sold well above estimates. Less than four months later, on April 7, Scottsdale Art Auction was back and undeterred by the high bar set earlier in the year by its white glove sale. It didn’t achieve a 100 percent sell-through rate, but there was still much to cheer at the popular Arizona Western art sale: nearly 95 percent of the works sold while achieving more than $11 million in sales, and all to a crowded room where collectors, many returning from the previous sale, were enthusiastically bidding.
“It was interesting having our regular sale so close to the Leanin’ tree sale,” says Jack Morris, one of the auction partners. “bringing everyone back three months later was a little risky.we knew we wouldn’t have the same audience or the same sized audience; however, the audience we did get was very strong and exciting things started to happen.” Morris adds that the auction surpassed expectations, saying, “I’m very pleased, as are [partners] Michael [Frost] and Brad [Richardson]. we just didn’t know where it was going to
go, but we’re very surprised where it did go.”
Noteworthy lots include Gerard Curtis Delano’s high-energy work The Victors, featuring riders galloping right toward the viewer, which sold for $444,600, just missing its high estimate of $450,000. A Thomas Moran landscape, Solitude.the Coconino Forest, arizona, sold for $438,750, just above its low estimate of $400,000. Other top works were William Herbert “Buck” Dunton’s Going In ,the Bear Hunters, which sold within estimates at $210,600;
Clark Hulings’ market scene Kaleidoscope that flew just over its $200,000 high estimate when it finished at $204,750; and two Charles M. Russell works, the oil Indian on Horseback and the bronze A Bronc Twister, both of which fell within estimates.the Russell oil sold for $321,750 and the bronze sold for $234,000. The top lot was John Clymer’s Spotted Buffalo, which received consistent bidding until it closed at $468,000, well above its $300,000 high estimate. Another Clymer work, Return from the Hunt, also sold well at $234,000, within its estimates of $200,000 to $300,000.The illustrator turned fine artist is known for his elaborate scenes involving multiple figures and animals.
Another noteworthy sale was Joseph Henry Sharp’s unique The Artist in the Studio Mirror, a self-portrait that saw consistent bidding in the room and on the phones before eventually closing at $204,750, more than double its high estimate of $100,000.