Art of the West Rounded Up for a Rebound

By Stephen Wallis

July 23, 2011

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303661904576454192598674396

For those who sell art of the American West, it's hard not to feel nostalgic for the good ol' days—not the cowboy era but the wild-west years of 2003 to 2008, when prices blasted to record highs.

On Saturday the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction, the best-known annual sale of Western, wildlife and sporting art, will take over the grand ballroom at the Silver Legacy Resort in Reno, Nev. The auction's totals peaked at $37 million in 2008. A year ago, by contrast, the auction brought in just $9.2 million.

"That was probably the weakest we've seen the market since we started 26 years ago," said Reno art dealer Peter Stremmel, a Coeur d'Alene founder who also serves as its auctioneer. Though buyers are still being cautious, he says, he anticipates a bounce-back year.

A summer ritual since 1985, the Coeur d'Alene auction (which kept its name, despite moving from Idaho to Nevada a decade ago) is basically Art Basel for the ranching and oil set, who come for the Western camaraderie as well as for the art.

Among those expected this year is Idaho lumber magnate Marc Brinkmeyer, who primarily collects contemporary Western works. Mr. Brinkmeyer has attended the auction for close to 15 years: "Usually I come home with more than I bargained for. It's good for us collectors that the market's down a little bit."

At Saturday's sale, just under 300 lots will be hammered down in roughly five hours, with spotters in the room pointing out bidders with enthusiastic "yips" and "has." Highlights include four works by the 19th-century landscape painter Albert Bierstadt, whose view of "Mount Rainier" carries a high estimate of $2.5 million. Stalwarts Frederic Remington and Charles Russell will be represented, the latter by an 1892 painting of an Indian camp with a top estimate of $1.2 million. Among the more recent-vintage material, there are 13 works, expected to fetch upwards of $425,000, from the estate of the sculptor Harry Jackson.

Unlike most collecting fields, Sotheby's and Christie's aren't necessarily the go-to options for sellers of top Western material. Coeur d'Alene, a bellwether for the market, holds several major artist auction records, including those for Russell and N.C. Wyeth.

But it has rivals. The Scottsdale Art Auction in Arizona could surpass Coeur this year, having posted a $15.3 million total in April, including $4.2 million for a landscape by the Hudson River School master Thomas Moran. Not far behind are the Jackson Hole Art Auction, in Wyoming on Sept. 17, and the Santa Fe Art Auction, which emphasizes Southwestern works, on Nov. 12. Bonhams, meanwhile, is holding one of its three yearly sales of California and Western paintings in Los Angeles on Aug. 9.