African-American Art Exceeds High Estimates at Auction

A few noted auction results in African-American art that exceeded high estimates.

Ethan Allen Greenwood's Sambo The Beggar Man, 1854, realized a sales price of $ 13, 420 at Rago Arts and Auction Center's recent Estates Sale. This item was featured in an earlier post of our blog. The oil on canvas painting was among the top ten lots sold at both the Discovery and Estate Sales held August 7th and August 8th, respectively.

Romare Bearden (1911-1988) Jamming at the Savoy, sold for $10,000, just above the high estimate, at Christie's Prints and Multiples sale on July 22, 2009. At the same auction, Bearden's Brass Section went unsold.

Sam Gilliam (1938-) Lincoln Center Festival, sold for $ 2,000, several hundred dollars above its high estimate. The screen print in colors (see left) was produced in 2001 and is an artist's proof published by Lincoln Center, New York.

The total sales came to 1, 159,312 USD.

Earlier this year, Minnie Evans (1892-1987) Visionary Image sold for $ 13,750 at Sotheby's sale of The Property of Dr. and Mrs. Henry C. Landon III, January 24, 2009. The pencil and crayon on paper was originally estimated to sell for between 800-1,200 USD. In the same sale, Bearden's Morning of the Rooster: Mecklenburg County, sold for $ 2,812, over three times its high estimate. Total sale for this single owner auction was 1,534,386 USD.

Bust of Minnehaha by Edmonia Lewis sold at Cowan's Winter Fine and Decorative Art sale, February 7, 2009 for $ 52,875, surpassing its high estimate of $ 30,000.

The same auction featured another nineteenth-century artist, Robert Scott Duncanson. His oil on canvas painting, Robbing the Eagle's Nest, sold for $ 105, 750, over twice its high estimate of $ 50,000.

All sales prices include the buyer's premium.