These days when something is appealing and at least two people want it, estimates are meaningless. The Richards was one of six works from the Haussner Family Limited Partnership. The paintings had hung in the family's Baltimore restaurant and were extremely fresh to the market. Yet this market is still healthily selective. This Canadian painting was dark and a no sale.
Western art continues to be generally strong, and when anything great appears, fireworks follow.
It seems that Wynn had an arrangement with a well-known dealer with locations in New York and Santa Fe that only a certain amount of profit would be made by him on this picture. Wynn was said to be so disgusted with the whole thing that he consigned the Remington to Sotheby's. Everybody seems hot for Milton Avery these days, and when Figure with Bouquet from a Detroit collection came on the block, bidders included New York City dealers Michael Altman and Jay Cantor, who was bidding for a client. You'd think that everybody would be hot for Norman Rockwell too. When it was all over, even the usually sanguine Dara Mitchell was a bit overwhelmed.