Scottsdale Art Auction’s April 2025 live sale yields 97 percent sell-through rate and $15 million in sales.
The two-day live Scottsdale Art Auction, held April 11 and 12, saw active bidding across its three sessions including a white-glove result for the A.P. Hays Collection of works by Maynard Dixon. This session of the sale, a grouping of 62 lots, all found buyers for a combined $1.5 million in sales.
The major highlight from the Hays collection was DESERT ROCK NO. 2/CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN (est. $60,000-$90,000) which brought in $152,100, while the gouache CAPO SANTO, which measured just 5 by 6 inches, sold for $76,050 against an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. Other notables were MESA TOWARDS SUNSET, which landed above its presale estimate at $99,450, and BARNS AND POPLARS that came in just shy of its high estimate of $90,000 when it sold for $87,750.
The auction house offered an array of historic and contemporary works from the likes of Thomas Moran, Eanger Irving Couse, Charles M. Russell, Ed Mell, Mark Maggiori, John Coleman and Kyle Polzin. Moran’s painting ON THE HANCE TRAIL—GRAND CANYON OF THE COLORADO RIVER, ARIZONA was the highest earning lot of the weekend, achieving $725,400, a price slightly under its low estimate of $750,000. Couse’s OFFERING TO THE GREAT SPIRIT (est. $400,000-$600,000) brought in $409,500, while a watercolor by Russell titled NAVAJO WILD HORSE HUNTERS (est. $300,000-$500,000) sold for $315,900.
There was strong bidding for works by the late Arizona artist Ed Mell, who was widely recognized for his modernist approach to landscapes and figures of the Southwest. A world auction record was set for the artist when his 18-by-24-inch painting WESTERN BRONC caught the attention of buyers in-house and on the phone. Their robust bidding landed the work at $122,850. Rounding out the artist’s two-dimensional sales were WESTERN GAP I at $64,350; CLOUDS AND CACTI at $87,750; EXPANSE OF THE DESERT at $87,750; and EYE OF THE STORM at $117,000. A tabletop version of Mell’s iconic bronze JACKKNIFE, which can be found in monumental size on Main Street in Old Town Scottsdale, just down the road from where the auction happens at Legacy Gallery, sold for $23,400 to top its presale estimate of $12,000 to $18,000.
Other sale highlights included works by past and present members of the Cowboy Artists of America. Among them were Ray Swanson’s HOPI KACHINA MAKER at $29,250; Bill Owen’s GOLD DUST at $64,350; Charlie Dye’s EL CABESTRO at $46,800; Phil Epp’s LOOKING BACK, which sold for $38,025; and Coleman’s CRAZY HORSE at $99,450. All the works mentioned bested their presale estimates.
The auction house will host its next sale, an online auction of Western, wildlife and sporting art, on August 23.
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