Coeur d’Alene Art Auction totals over $10 million in sales
RENO, NEV.-The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction brought a strong total of over $10.4 million during this year’s sale. The highlight of the 2020 sale was Thomas Moran’s Green River, Wyoming (1883), which fetched over $1.6 million – the highest price for the influential Western landscape artist at auction this year. Despite COVID-19 restrictions, the largest single auction event in the classic Western and American Art field saw multiple lots sell for over $100,000, realizing a sales rate of over 88-percent for July 25th’s 264-lot sale.
The top price of the sale was achieved by Moran’s 1883 painting Green River, Wyoming, selling for $1,633,800, eclipsing the high estimate of $1,500,000. Painted in the prime of his career, Green River, Wyoming was the most significant Moran painting of this size and subject matter to come to market in recent years.
Victor Higgins’ New Mexico Zinnias fetched an impressive sum of $416,500 against a presale estimate of $200,000-300,000. The price represents the second-highest result ever for a still life from the influential Taos Society artist. The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction holds the world record for a work by Higgins, achieved during last year’s sale.
In what was a spirited bidding war, Ernest Blumenschein’s White Sun (1927) sold for $357,000, soaring past the presale estimate of $150,000-250,000. The final price is the highest seen for a Blumenschein portrait in over five years. The work was originally purchased by Joseph S. Cullinan, the founder of the oil company that is now known as Texaco.
Carl Rungius’ Herd Bull – perhaps one of his finest works ever – sold for $339,150. The painting was once owned by famed industrialist and philanthropist Richard P. Mellon.
E. William Gollings’ The Red Man’s Direction (1924) sold for $297,500, landing near the middle of a presale estimate of $250,000-350,000. The sale price represents the highest price at auction for the artist since 2016.
Works by Coeur d’Alene Art Auction mainstay Charles Marion Russell collectively sold for over $600,000, including auction highlights Blackfeet War Party ($190,400), With a Good Hoss under Him … ($178,500), and Planning the Attack ($154,700).
Other notable sales include Henry Merwin Shrady’s Bison, a 12-inch bronze, which sold for $154,700; Logan Maxwell Hagege’s Where Land Meets Sky (2017) also brought a final price of $154,700, further cementing the contemporary’s impressive run in recent auctions; Richard Schmid’s New Preston Falls II (1989) was snapped up for $142,800 – which represents the third-highest amount ever at auction; and Edward Borein’s Trail Boss found a buyer at $83,300, which is the highest price for a Borein on the secondary market in over five years.
