Results: Swann African American Sale

Delaney's Le Balayeur (left) and Bearden's Tidings (right)

Swann Auction Galleries recently held its bi-annual African American art sale.  The sale totaled a very strong $1.26 million for the 116 lots which sold. 148 lots were offered with a respectable 78% sell through rate.  Art Market Monitor reported that 9 of the top ten lots offered were sold to collectors, the other to a dealer.  I think this statistic shows the acceptance of the buying public to purchase items at auction, and a further discounting of the concept that the auction market is the primary domain of dealers, and not collectors. The top ten lots sold for between $108,000 and $33,600.


The Swann Auction Gallery blog stated about the sale

Yesterday's African-American Fine Art sale attracted active bidding, with the earliest works by Robert Scott Duncanson and Charles Ethan Porter, mid-century master works and a section devoted to Romare Bearden's centennial year all setting top prices. The day's top lot was Elizabeth Catlett's Untitled (Standing African-American Woman), a cast bronze sculpture from 1967 that sold for $108,000. This is the highest prize ever for an Elizabeth Catlett bronze sculpture.

Beauford Delaney's Le Balayeur, oil on canvas, 1968, and Romare Bearden's Tidings, a collage of various papers and mixed media, circa 1973, each brought $96,000