Some of the most recognisable artwork depicting the American West is heading to auction at Christie’s, where dozens of pieces from billionaire Bill Koch’s collection are expected to fetch at least $50 million.
The in-person Visions of the West sale will take place in New York over two sessions beginning January 20, with the final lots offered — appropriately — at high noon the following day. Koch’s holdings include major works by Frederic Remington, Charles Marion Russell and Albert Bierstadt, artists whose images of cowboys, Native Americans and sweeping landscapes helped define how generations came to picture the American frontier.
Tylee Abbott, head of Christie’s American Art Department, said interest in Western subjects has remained strong as new audiences discover the culture and mythology of the region.
“What is out West? What is over the horizon?" he mused. “It goes on to embody the American spirit.”
Bill Koch's brothers David and Charles Koch were major donors to conservative causes. Although he has pursued different ventures since a 1980s business dispute with his brothers, Bill Koch traces his longtime love of Western art to their childhood.
“I was born and raised in Kansas and spent childhood summers working on my father’s ranches in Montana and Texas,” Koch said in a statement to a news agency. He described himself as “a child of the American Plains,” shaped by the Western art that hung in his home and the stories of the region’s past.
The auction will include 16 sculptures by Remington, along with his painting Coming to the Call, which is expected to sell for $6 million to $8 million, according to Christie's. There will also be both a small and large version of Remington’s Bronco Buster bronze sculpture. Russell’s The Sun Worshippers is projected to sell for $4 million to $6 million. Bierstadt’s bright vistas of mountains and plains are also among the featured works.
The sale at Christie’s could attract collectors from across the nation, and the scale of the auction likely makes it one of the most significant Western art offerings in years. Christie’s has not said why Koch is selling, with the billionaire simply stating, “It is time to pass along these pieces.”
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