NEW YORK CITY — Conducted on February 3 and apart from Christie’s Americana Week offerings, the firm’s Outsider Art sale achieved a total of $2,239,625, a result of nearly 188 percent above low estimate with 98 percent of lots selling. The top lot of the day was Bill Traylor’s untitled (Man and Woman), which had provenance to both Carl Hammer Gallery and the Gene and Judy Kohn Collection. It sold to a private collector for $175,000 against an estimate of $80/120,000. According to Christie’s Head of Americana and Outsider Art, Cara Zimmerman, the interesting, desirable and unusual elements of the 15-by-12¾-inch graphite, colored pencil and tempera on card work was its fantastic condition, the use of vibrant blue, including the blue splotch in the upper center of the composition and the ambiguous relationship of the man and woman.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house; watch for a longer recap in a future issue.