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ART+AUCTION
September 2006

The Coeur d'Alene Art Auction galloped to a new plateau of earnings this summer. The once-a-year Western and wildlife art event, held on July 22 at the Hilton hotel in Reno, Nevada, brought in $27.4 million, a 29 percent increase over last year's high of $21.2 million. According to auctioneer Peter Stremmel, at least 15 artist records were set.

The auction house's proven excitement generators-a theatrical team of scouts who pose, cajole and "yip" the bidders-were deployed, but from all appearances, the shorts- and khaki-clad crowd of 900 didn't need much encouragement to spend their money.

Unsurprisingly, the top lot was Thomas Moran's The Eternal Snows of Mount Moran, 1912, depicting the cloud-enshrouded peaks of the Grand Tetons with a luminous aura. It sold for $1.9 million, against an atypical ambitious estimate of $1.5 million to $2.5 million.

Classic Westernist Frederic Remington's 1891 An Apache (est. $800,000-1.2 million), shown on horseback with rifle at the ready, tied for second place with contemporary artist Howard Terpning's Search for the Renegades, 1981, a scene from the U.S. cavalry's pursuit of Geronimo in 1886. Both paintings sold for $1.5 million. "I'm still trying to sort out the fact that Terpning's prices have exceeded those of a lot of important deceased artists with works throughout Western art museums, "says Brad Richardson, owner of the Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Jackson, Wyoming. Major works by the artist are scarce at auction.

This year Coeur d'Alene traveled slightly afield of its usual grazing grounds by winning a consignment of Diego Rivera's Vendedora de flores en Xochimilco, 1929 (est. $800,000-1.2 million). Hitting its high estimate, the Mexican work was the sale's third-biggest earner.

"This is the record auction sale of Western art of all time," says Santa Fe dealer Gerald Peters. "They'll have a great sale next year, but beating this won't be easy."

Article, "Wild About the West," by Harriet Modler.