NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s American Art auction concluded today in New York with an exceptional total of $83,915,500* – well in excess of its $62.1 million high estimate – and a strong sell-through rate of 88.2% by lot (see ‘Notes & Highlights’ below). The centerpiece of the auction was a selection of seven paintings by Norman Rockwell from the family of Kenneth J. Stuart, Sr. – the artist’s longtime friend and art editor at The Saturday Evening Post – all of which sold for a stunning total of $59,663,000.

The group was led by Rockwell’s masterpiece Saying Grace, which set a new record for any work sold in an American Art auction** and nearly tripled the previous auction record for the artist*** when it achieved $46,085,000 – soaring past its $20 million high estimate. The painting, which was voted by Post readers as their favorite cover, was sought after by two determined phone bidders who competed for more than 9 minutes. Additional highlights of the Stuart Family Collection included The Gossips, which fetched $8,453,000 (est. $6/9 million) and Walking to Church, which brought $3,245,000 (est. $3/5 million).

HIGHLIGHTS

• Highest total for a sale of American Art at any auction house since May 2008

• Third-highest total for any auction of American Art in Sotheby’s history****

• 4th consecutive American Art auction at Sotheby’s to exceed its pre-sale high estimate

• 4th consecutive American Art auction at Sotheby’s with a sell-through rate over 80%

• 88.2% marks the highest sell-through rate for an American Art auction at Sotheby’s since the December 2004 sale that featured Property from the Collection of Rita & Daniel Fraad

• Property from an Important American Collection brought exceptional results for both 19th century paintings and American Modernism, led by Albert Bierstadt’s Lake in the Sierra Nevada from 1867 that fetched $2,105,000 (est. $1.5/2.5 million) and Arthur Dove’s Lattice and Awning from 1941 that brought $1,685,000 (est. $1.2/1.8 million) – a new world auction record for the artist.

• The works had remained in the same collection since they were acquired in the late 1980s and early 1990s

• Strong prices for the Western art on offer today included Paul Manship’s 21-inch-tall bronze sculpture Indian Hunter and His Dog that tripled its high estimate on its way to selling for $1,565,000 – a new world auction record for the artist – as well as Thomas Moran’s 1915 landscape Grand Canyon in Mist that brought $1,445,000 (est. $800,000/1.2 million)

• Competition for American Illustration extended to Maxfield Parrish, whose The Knave of Hearts: The Six Little Ingredients sold for $1,925,000 at the start of the auction – more than five times its high estimate of $350,000

** The previous auction record for any work sold in an American Art auction was set at Sotheby’s New York in 1999, when George Bellows’s Polo Crowd sold for $27.7 million.

*** The previous auction record for Norman Rockwell was set at Sotheby’s New York in 2006, when Breaking Home Ties sold for $15.4 million in 2006.

**** The only two American Art auctions at Sotheby’s to achieve totals larger than today’s results were held in May 2008, with $87.5 million, and December 2004, with $107.9 million including Property from the Collection of Rita & Daniel Fraad.