GREAT FALLS, MONT. — The C.M. Russell Museum marked a successful Western Art Week, following the Russell Live Auction on March 23 in the Great Falls Civic Auditorium.

Top lot in the $3.5 million sale was Charles M. Russell’s (1864–1926) 1897 oil painting “Approach of White Men,” which sold for $1.2 million. The painting depicts a group of mounted Indians atop a high point of ground in the center of a picture, with the broad plains and high country stretching into the distance far behind and below.

Additional highlights included “Indian with Bow,” $650,000; “Indian Scout,” $350,000; and “Preparation for the Buffalo Hunt,” which brought $110,000.

A total of 147 works of art, including 13 Russell works from private collections, crossed the block, bringing the gross sales total, with buyer’s premiums, to $3,586,100.