NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s autumn auctions of American Art concluded yesterday in New York with a season total of $52.2 million*, well exceeding their overall low estimate of $41.3 million. Highlights of yesterday’s sales include:

AMERICAN ART
Sale Total: $26.6 Million / High Estimate: $23 Million
82.1% Sold by Lot
New Auction Records Set for:

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, George Copeland Ault, Otto Henry Bacher, Charles Sprague Pearce, James Gale Tyler, David Brega, Walter Pach

Three works by Andrew Wyeth on offer from the collection of Hollywood legend Charlton Heston and his wife, Lydia Heston, were highlighted by Flood Plain, which sold for $5.2 million following a bidding battle between two determined bidders (estimate $2/3 million). A longtime admirer of the Wyeth family and of Andrew’s work in particular, Charlton Heston began a correspondence with the artist in the 1980s that quickly grew into a friendship.

Works on offer from the collection of television legend Samuel “Sam” Simon (1955-2015) – co-developer of The Simpsons and writer/producer/director on countless pop culture icons – were led by Thomas Hart Benton's T.P. and Jake, which achieved $3.1 million (estimate $1.5/2.5 million), and Daylight at Russell’s Corners, which set a new auction record for George Copeland Ault at $514,000 (estimate $250/350,000). Sotheby’s is offering fine art and memorabilia from Simon’s collection across a series of auctions in New York through 2015, with full proceeds benefiting the multi-platform Sam Simon Charitable Giving Foundation, which supports animal welfare programs as well as poverty alleviation and disaster relief organizations.

American Illustration was led by Norman Rockwell’s Cheerleaders (Losing Game), which appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on 16 February 1952. The work sold for $4.5 million, above a high estimate of $3.5 million. While known to scholars and published in the artist’s catalogue raisonné, its whereabouts have remained unknown for decades.

THE COLLECTION OF A. ALFRED TAUBMAN: AMERICAN ART
Yesterday’s Sale Total: $13 Million
Overall Taubman Collection Total for American Art: $21.7 Million
New Auction Record Set for Martin Johnson Heade
This season’s sales of American Art were led by Martin Johnson Heade’s monumental masterpiece The Great Florida Sunset, which more than doubled the previous auction record for the artist by selling for $5.9 million. The painting was commissioned by Henry Morrison Flager – noted industrialist and partner of John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company – and hung in the entrance of his Hotel Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine Florida, which was completed in 1888.

Mr. Taubman’s unprecedented collection of eight works on paper by Charles Burchfield – one of the most important in private hands – was 100% sold. The Masterworks auction on 4 November offered Flower Garden and Pillar of Cloud, which sold for $730,000 (estimate $500/700,000), while tonight’s auction was highlighted by Cicada Song in September, which brought $466,000 (left, estimate $300/500,000).

Other notable works on paper from the collection included Winslow Homer’s watercolor The "Summer Cloud", which sold for $1.8 million (estimate $1.5/2.5 million), and Female Gamester, which set a new auction record for a work on paper by Milton Avery at $580,000 (estimate $200/300,000).