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ARTnews
September 2006

At its 20th-anniversary sale of Western art, the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction saw a dozen new records. The overall total for the sale, held July 22 at the Reno Hilton, Nev., far surpassed that of any previous year: More than $27.4 million was brought in by the 273 lots sold (the high presale estimate was $22 million). Just three lots went unsold. The auction topped last year's record sales of $21 million for 275 lots sold and far exceeded the 2004 total of $18.1 million. A record crowd of roughly 900 bidders and attendees was on hand to spur the activity, surpassing last year's attendance of 700, sales organizers report.

"Not even in our wildest expectations did we predict this," reports Coeur d'Alene partner Stuart Johnson, who says that he and his fellow organizers had no thought of outdoing last year's sales. "Every year we like to think we have better work that the year before," Johnson continues. He notes that each year, 20 or more artists create pieces specifically for this event.

A standout at the latest sale was the strength of contemporary Western art, which accounted for a much higher proportion of sales than in prior years. Traditionally, multimillion-dollar works by icons the likes of Albert Bierdstadt, Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell have dominated the sale and accounted for a major part of the overall total. However, Coeur d'Alene partner and auctioneer Peter Stremmel points out, "great masterworks are becoming more scarce, and people would rather have an outstanding contemporary work than a lesser work by a master."

Mike Overby, another auction partner, attributes this year's success to the overall increase in the quality of the numerous works on offer. "We had a lot more work in the $300,000/800,000 range," he notes. In comparison, at last summer's sale a sizable portion of the overall total was derived from the $5.6 million final price of Russell's oil-on-canvas Piegans, 1918.

This time around, no single work exceeded the $2 million mark. The highest price fetched was $1.9 million, paid for the 1912 painting The Eternal Snows of Mt. Moran or Glacier on Mt. Moran, by Thomas Moran (1837-1926), and that result was short of the high estimate of $2.5 million.

Works by contemporary artist Howard Terpning (b. 1927) sparked intense bidding. Search for the Renegades, 1981 - a depiction of an approaching Army cavalry assisted by Apache scouts searching an adobe hut in the course of tracking down renegades - took $1.5 million, far above the estimated $300,000/500,000 and nearly doubling the artist's previous record of $830,000. Another work by Terpning, The Stragglers, 1993 - a dramatic piece showing three Apaches ready to pounce on left-behind Army men - fetched $1.1 million (estimate: $350,000/550,000); while the other two lots by the artist, Signals in the Wind, 1988, and The Cache, 1982, brought in $728,000 and $420,000, respectively. Each had been estimated at $200,000/300,000.

A new artist's record also was set for Carl Rungius (1869-1959) when The Family, circa 1929, an oil-on-canvas depiction of a bear family, fetched $952,000 (estimate: $300,000/500,000). The price outstripped the artist's previous record of $581,000. Arrival of the Train Wagons, Rendezvous - 1830, painted in 1986 by John Clymer (1907-1989), brought $616,000 (estimate: $200,000/300,000), surpassing his previous record of $220,750, set in 2001. The Iron Shirt, 1985, by Tom Lovell (1909-1997), went for $420,000 (estimate: $150,000/250,000), outdoing the artist's record of $321,000, set at the Coeur d'Alene sale in 2000.

Buyers this year consisted primarily of private collectors, notes Stremmel. Given the strength of the sale - 55 percent of works exceeded the high estimate, 40 percent sold within estimate, and only 5 percent sold below low estimate - "it was difficult for galleries to buy for inventory," he says. "Most galleries who bought works were buying for their clients."

Article, "Coeur d'Alene Auction Just Keeps Getting Better," by Cherie Louise Turner.