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December Issue 2007
Charleston Art Auction Tops $600,000
The Charleston Art Auction offered 125 lots to an enthusiastic crowd of collectors and telephone bidders from throughout the United States during its second annual sale in Charleston, SC, on Nov. 3, 2007, with total sales of $608,148. The event was over-sold a week prior and additional bidders lined the walls of the Marriott/Renaissance Hotel Ball Room where the sale was also carried live on the Internet, via LiveAuctioneers, with 62 registered bidders from 30 different states.
Eighteen new auction records for artists were established with top lots including Pino's Windows of the Soul and A Lazy Afternoon fetching $74,000; Mary Whyte's Pin Wheel that hammered down at $33,600; Clark Hulings' Andalusia that sold for $28,000; and the last lot of the evening, a small oil by Robert Griffing, Out of the Morning Fog (estimated at $10,000 to $15,000) enjoyed spirited bidding that reached $19,000.
This year's sale was scheduled to compliment the Ninth Fine Art Annual, presented by the Charleston Fine Art Dealers' Association and a selection of twenty-four plein aire paintings created by gallery artists were blended into the auction with total sale proceeds of $30,000 (including all admissions) to benefit the Charleston County High School Student Art Programs.
Sale producers Jack A. Morris, Jr, J. Ben Whiteside and David G. Leahy of Morris & Whiteside Galleries in Hilton Head Island, SC, and Joe and Janie Sylvan of The Sylvan Gallery in Charleston, SC, noted the large number of collectors that had traveled from Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Georgia to attend the auction. "We were especially pleased with the participation of Charleston area galleries," said Sylvan, past president of CFADA (Charleston Fine Art Dealers' Association) and owner of The Sylvan Gallery, local headquarters for Charleston Art Auction, LLC.
"The time has definitely come for a professional, fine art auction in Charleston," added Whiteside, "and Saturday night's sale was another positive step in showcasing the visual arts in Charleston and establishing a secondary art market to serve a broad range of individual, corporate and institutional collectors." Morris, Whiteside, Leahy and the Sylvans have over twenty-six years of auction experience in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and South Carolina.
For complete results of the auction go to (www.charlestonartauction.com).
For further information contact Jack A.
Morris, Jr. at 843/842-4433 or Joe Sylvan at 843/722-0128.
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