: In a surprise decision, The Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago, changed the time and terms of Sotheby's sale of the
O'Fallon Collection of American Indian Portraits by George Catlin
on the morning of the sale, December 2. Instead of selling 31
individual Catlins (plus three paintings by other artists), the
auction house would now make the entire sale one lot, with a
starting bid of $10.7 million. Sotheby's read the announcement to
stunned bidders waiting in the room.
The sale was postponed from its scheduled time of approximately
11 am on December 2 (on the heels of the Fine Books and
Manuscripts auction) to 5 pm the same day. This allowed
individual bidders an opportunity to rethink their original
intentions and prepare for more serious bidding.
The Field Museum changed course in the hopes that the entire
collection would go to a public institution. The decision came as
a direct result of an offer of $10.7 million that was put forward
by art dealer W. Graham Arader III of New York City, the morning
of the sale. Arader was bidding with his own money on behalf of
the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Neb.
The Joslyn Art Museum did not acquire the Catlins. The single-lot
sale brought $17,368,000 from a private buyer, bidding through
Soth-eby's Selby Kiffer (senior vice president books and
manuscripts) on the phone. The underbidder was also bidding by
phone, through Sotheby's Lisa Heller. On the auction floor,
Arader bid to $12 million from his own account before dropping
out.
Most of Catlin's 28 North American Indian portraits in the sale
carried presale estimates of $200/400,000 or $300/500,000 with
some estimated as high as $600,000. His painting of a formidable
"Buffalo Bull, grazing on the prairie" was estimated at
$400/600,000. (There were also two other buffalo paintings by
Catlin in the group). Bidders coming to town with a few million
dollars to spend on Catlins had to leave empty handed. The
revised presale estimate was announced as $10.7/15 million.
Graham Arader thought the anonymous buyer got a bargain buying
the Catlins for $17,368,000, noting, "The Charles Bird King
painting went for over a million. Portraits by Catlin are more
valuable than that." The King painting, "Ottoe Half Chief,
Husband of Eagle of Delight" was part of Sotheby's American
Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture sale the day before and sold
for $1,352,000 ($150/250,000). The other King, "Wai-Kee-Chai,
Sanky Chief, Crouching Eagle" brought $792,000 in the same sale
($125/175,000).
"It used to be that most dealers had $300,000 to spend. Then it
was $1.5 million. Now it's $5 million," said Arader after the
sale. "David Redden played this just right - giving people just
four hours to come up with the money."
David Redden, vice chairman of Sotheby's, stated, "We are
privileged to have been asked by the Field Museum to sell these
most important documents of American history. The portraits in
the O'Fallon Collection are among the earliest portraits of
Native Americans made by George Catlin, who is generally conceded
to be the most significant pictorial historian of the American
West. We are very pleased with today's results."
"Buffalo Bull, grazing on the prairie," George Catlin, oil on
canvas.
Explaining the reasons for deaccessioning the Catlins, John
W. McCarter, Jr, president and CEO of The Field Museum of Natural
History, stated, "Objects created by indigenous peoples are the
focus of our anthropology collections. In contrast, these paintings
were created by George Catlin and other 'American School' artists,
and therefore fall outside the traditional focus of our mission. We
did, however, decide to retain four of the Catlin paintings, given
their specific historical importance and connection to the earliest
years of The Field Museum."
According to Jonathan Haas, curator of North American
Anthropology at the Field Museum, the funds will help the museum
"to become one of the premier institutions in the world
collecting contemporary material culture."
The O'Fallon Collection was named for St Louis Indian Agent
Benjamin O'Fallon, who commissioned them and arranged for Catlin
to travel aboard the American Fur Company's Missouri River
steamboat, the Yellowstone in 1832. The identities of many
of the sitters are known from Catlin's writings.
