SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — Scottsdale Art Auction conducts just two sales annually: one in Spring, the other in August, with each typically realizing eight-figure totals. The company’s most recent edition, April 11 and 12, presented a total of 463 lots, with a 179-lot session on the first day, the 62-lot single-owner estate collection of A.P. Hays the morning of April 12, which preceded the culminating 222-lot session later that day. Reached by phone a few days after the final gavel fell, co-founder Brad Richardson confirmed the event had totaled about $15 million, with a sell-through rate of more than 97 percent.

Earning $725,400, including the buyer’s premium, and the accolade of “top lot” was “On the Hance Trail-Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, Arizona” by Thomas Moran (1837-1926), which came to auction from a private collection in Wyoming and will be included in forthcoming catalogue raisonné by Stephen L. Good and Phyllis Braff. An upcoming issue will feature a more extensive discussion of the sale and its highlights, including new world auction records set.