NEW YORK, NY.- The Thursday, March 6 auction of 19th & 20th Century Art brought $723k, with 81% of lots finding buyers. Of the auction, Specialist Meagan Gandolfo noted, “The sale brought good results for American, Latin American and European art, and it was encouraging to see clients respond well to our blending of the material. The exceptional David Johnson painting on panel, the Wifredo Lam works on paper, and the Olga Costa works were the subjects of exciting bidding, and I am pleased with the results and high sell-through rate.”

The top lot of the auction was David Johnson with Dollar Island, Lake George, oil on panel, 1873. After five minutes of competitive back-and-forth bidding, the lot sold for $81,250 against a $15,000 to $20,000 estimate. Additional American art to note was a similar landscape scene by George Inness with Thunder Storm in Medfield, Massachusetts, oil on canvas, circa 1877, which brought $11,875. Marsden Hartley found success with Alpspitz, Mittenwald Road (Dreitorspitze from Gschwandtnerbauer), charcoal on board, circa 1933-34, at $14,750, and Lyonel Feininger with Locomotive, watercolor and ink on paper, 1942, at $22,500.

Diego Rivera, Pablo Esteban O’Higgins, and Olga Costa were among the standouts of the Latin American Art offerings. Rivera’s Retrato de una mujer, charcoal and pastel on paper, 1921, brought $15,000; O’Higgins’s Arriba de Milpa Alta, oil on canvas, saw $13,650; Costa’s Oaxaqueña molienda de cacao, color crayon with watercolor, 1941, sold for $12,500, the second highest auction record for a work on paper, and Oazaqueña con un collar oro, oil on board, 1949, sold for $8,125.

European art was led by two Wifredo Lam works on paper, a 1963 abstract portrait at $18,750 and a 1958 abstract scene of birds at $30,000. Also of note was Shimon Okshteyn’s Smoking Hand, oil and pencil on canvas, 1984, which brought $18,750; Pablo Picasso’s Bright Dove, glazed terre de faïence rectangular dish, 1953, at $13,750; Bernard Cathelin’s Nature Morte Sicilienne, oil on canvas, 1960, at $13,750; and Rosa Bonheur’s Vache et son veau, watercolor with charcoal, 1863, at $10,000.

The next offering of Fine Art will be April 3.