Coeur d’alene Art Auction
Wildlife, Taos and American landcapes turn in huge numbers at the Coeur d’alene Art Auction.
Reno, NV
For an auction house, all you ask for is a decent turn-out of bidders, a high percentage of sold lots and a problemfree sale. Anything over that—auction records, competitive bidding and a terrific sales total—is a welcome bonus. So when the Coeur d’alene Art Auction ended on July 27 with a sales total of $17 million and several significant world records, there was much to celebrate. “We’re feeling really great right now,” says auction partner Mike Overby. “We are very happy with the sale. We sold all of our big paintings, and then pretty much everything else, too. In fact, it’s been pretty easy here afterwards because everything ran so smoothly during the sale.”
The sale had a standing-room-only crowd, auction workers fielding bids from their personal cell phones due to packed phone lines and a number of lots had fierce bidding. Overall, 38 items, more than 10 percent of the whole sale, sold for more than $100,000. “The internet was up 10 percent, and phones were up 30 percent. With internet bidding, people are just getting more comfortable with it year after year. It helps that the process gets more streamlined and user
friendly, but we’re also seeing younger bidders take an interest in Western art, which is really great for us,” he says. “We also saw more than 35 percent of all the lots sell above their high estimates. It makes us very happy with the market and where it’s headed.”
The auction started with a bang just two lots in when a Carl Rungius etching on paper, Over the Pass, estimated at $4,000 to $6,000, saw frantic bidding that drove the lot to $95,200. “The Rungius sold so high because the artist only printed several of them, at least three that we know of. So we have lots of collectors who have the whole set of Rungius etchings, and usually the whole set is considered everything but Over the Pass because it was deemed unattainable,” Overby says. “So when it came through the door I was blown away. During the sale, everyone wanted it so they could complete their set. It was very competitive.” The top lot of the sale was Frederic Remington’s Casuals on the Range, painted in 1909, the year he died. Estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million, it fell right in the middle of estimates at $981,750. Not far behind it was Joseph Henry Sharp’s Crow Encampment, Montana, which sold for $892,500, well above its $500,000 high estimate. Completing the top-three lots was Victor Higgins Taos in Winter that sold for $833,000, clearing its $600,000 high estimate with room to spare. Taos in Winter also broke Higgins’ auction record, which was previously set in 2015 at $773,000.
Another record breaker was Rosa Bonheur’s Emigration de Bisons (Amérique), a work that was created in France without the artist ever seeing the American West. Bonheur’s work surpassed its $500,000 high estimate and sold for $773,500, breaking a two-year record that was previously $607,500.
Other top lots were Charles M. Russell’s gouache and watercolor work Creased (est. $800/1,200,000) that sold for $714,000, Rungius’ Near Summit Lake, British Columbia
(est. $250/350,000) that sold for $357,000 and Edgar Payne’s Burning the Hogan (est. $200/300,000) that sold for $267,750. William Healey’s collection of John Fery paintings, which was a stand-alone session before the bulk of the 359-lot sale, also performed strongly.
Works from living artists included Mian Situ’s Golden Spike Ceremony, Promontory Summit, Utah, May 10, 1869
(est. $275/375,000) that sold for $386,750; Don Oelze’s Strangers in the Valley (est. $15/25,000) that sold for $166,600, a new artist world record; and several works by Howard Terpning, including Mixed Company
(est. $150/250,000) that sold for $297,500 and Soldier Chief (est. $100/150,000) that sold for $154,700, setting a world artist record for a work on paper.