NEW YORK, NY.- The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction brought a strong total of over $ 17.5 million during this year’s sale. The highlight of the 2021 sale was auction mainstay Charles M. Russell’s Roping a Wolf, 1904, which sold for over $ 1.7 million – the highest total for the influential Western artist in over seven years, and the tenth-highest total all-time. The largest single-auction event in the classical Western and American Art field saw over 30 lots eclipse the $ 100,000 price point, realizing a sales rate of over 94%.

The Coeur d'Alene Art Auction held their 36th annual Fine Western & American Art auction on July 31, 2021 with online bidding available exclusively through Bidsquare for the sixth consecutive year.

While the feverish bidding for Roping a Wolf brought the packed house to applause, several other Russell works elicited their own fireworks, including: Mexicans Leaving an Inn, 1906, which realized $ 242,000; Cowboy on a Bronco, 1898, Indian on a Pinto, 1898, and Friend Con Letter, 1910, each sold for $157,300; and Friend Ad Letter, 1923, with a $133,100 sale price. Overall, works by Charles M. Russell garnered more than $ 3.2 million in sales.

Philip R. Goodwin’s Hitting the Trail, one of his finest paintings created at the apex of his career between 1910 and 1920, set a world record with a price of $ 453,750, blowing past its presale estimate of $100,000 – 150,000.

With a round of spirited bidding that ignited the crowd, a world record was also set for Edmund H. Osthaus when Two Hunting Dogs, 1891, sold for $ 242,000, against a presale estimate of $ 40,000 – 60,000. The bidding spanned the course of several minutes, as phone and internet bidders volleyed for greatness.

Peter Hurd’s The Eve of St. John smashed the artist’s previous auction record by almost 50%, selling for $157,300. This painting is the first version of Hurd’s The Eve of St. John, and it serves as the inspiration for the American painter’s most-famous work, housed in the San Diego Museum of Art’s collection.

Herman W. Hansen’s Attack on the Stagecoach set a world record with a price of $ 157,300 versus a presale estimate of $ 80,000 – 120,000. Long considered to be his finest work, the high-action oil painting came from a prominent collection in Jackson, Wyoming.

In addition to multiple world records, the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction set high marks with its online bidding partner Bidsquare for largest auction total with over $ 4.1 million in online sales. Also setting a record for an individual item sold at auction was Oscar Berninghaus’ The Domain of Their Ancestors, 1925, earning $847,000 which more than doubled Bidsquare’s previous record of $ 381,000 for an item sold online.