NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s American Art sale on May 22 realized $32,843,500, with 82% sold by lot and 91% sold by value and the American Art Online Auction totaled $1,923,875, with 77% sold by lot and 100% sold by value. Together with the Art of the Americas, Evening Sale from The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller, the spring season of American Art totals $141,650,875.

The top lot of the May 22 sale was Georgia O’Keeffe’s seminal work, Hibiscus, painted in 1939 during her three-month Hawaiian sojourn at the behest of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, which realized $4,812,500.Other notable lots include Milton Avery’s Red Nude which sold for $3,012,500, more than double its high estimate, Norman Rockwell’s Piano Tuner, which sold for $2,772,500, and Childe Hassam’s Conversation on the Avenue which brought in $2,412,500. The top lot of the American Art Online Auction was Thomas Hill’s Yosemite Valley, which sold for $93,750, above the high estimate of $50,000.

New World Auction Records were set during the May 22 sale for John Kane, Douglass Crockwell, and the record for Charles Ephraim Burchfield was reset just 2 weeks after being established in the Art of the Americas, Evening Sale from The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller. The Art of the Americas, Evening sale on May 9 also established records for Graves, Hirsch, Porter, Rivera, Sheeler, and Stuart.

NEW WORLD AUCTION RECORDS

• John Kane (1860-1934), Scots' Day at Kennywood, oil on canvas. Painted circa 1931. Price Realized: $187,500

• Douglass Crockwell (1904-1968), Machinists, oil on canvas. Painted in 1932. Price Realized: $106,250

• Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), Cherry Blossom Snow. Watercolor, gouache and charcoal on joined paper laid down on board. Executed circa 1917-45. Price Realized: $1,812,500