A ho-hum week for American Art, with one exception

This was, unofficially at least, American art week in New York. The sales at both Christie's and Sotheby's were unexceptional, and so was most of the art. The tallies:

• Sotheby's sale totaled $15.3 million, with 62% sold by lot, 73% sold by value
• Christie's, $16.8 million, with 62% sold by lot, 70% by value.

Christie's sales report touts three "world records for the artist," but on examination, they were tiny, all below $80,000. The artists were Charles E. Humphriss, Edwin Willard Deming and Eric Pape. Top lot was Milton Avery's Sketching By the Sea, which fetched $2.2 million.

Sotheby's had a more interesting "world record for the artist" -- Harriet Whitney Frismuth''s bronze The Vine (left), which had been estimated at $400,000 to $600,000 and ended up bringing $962,500 including the premium (which is never in the estimate).

The Vine, in a much larger version, is also on the front page of the New York Times Weekend (Fine Arts/Leisure) section today, illustrating Holland Cotter's review of the Metropolitan Museum's renovated American Wing.

Photo Credit: Courtesy Sotheby's