A Trio of Hits

Raking in more than $1.4 million in sales, the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale was a hit for collectors.

By the time the auctioneer’s hammer dropped for the last time during the 43rd annual Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale,the event had already surpassed a milestone hours earlier. The event, held at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, sold more than $1.45 million in art, a show record. It was the first time in its long history that sales had bested $1 million.

Ty Barhaug, Lighting the Valley Floor, oil, 9 x 25 in.Held in a large tent near the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Salefeatured a trio of events that helped it rack up its huge total: a live auction, a popular quickdraw event featuring 29 artists and a silent auction. The live auction saw especially strong sales, with 98 of 104 works selling, a 94 percent sell-through. Helping push those numbers high were 625 registered bidders, the majority of them in the tent and raising paddles.

Vic Payne, The Walk of Tombstone, clay for bronze, 29 x 54 x 20 in.

The Walk of Tombstone in finished bronze.

The top lot in the live sale was Sally Maxwell’s scratchboard piece Nuance or Nothing is Just Black and White, which sold for $48,875. The piece was also awarded the People’s Choice Award, which was voted on by more than 1,500 attendees. Another work that saw spirited bidding was Ty Barhaug’s oil painting Lighting the Valley Floor, which sold for $37,375. In the sculpture category, Vic Payne’s The Walk of Tombstonesold for $40,250. The bronze piece shows four lawmen, including Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, as they walk to the OK Corral for their fateful gunfight in Tombstone, Arizona.

Sally Maxwell, Nuance or Nothing is Just Black or White, colored scratchboard, 24 x 48 in.

One of the event’s organizers, and the show’s owner, is the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce, which uses the event to celebrate the museum, Western art and the beautiful region in northwest Wyoming. “An event like this would not be possible without support from the whole Cody community,” says Jennifer Thoma, CEO of the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce. “To every artist, patron, partner, sponsor, employee, vendor, and volunteer, thank you for your incredibly generous contributions that led to a wildly successful 43rd Art Show & Sale.”

The show benefits the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and also community organizations in the Cody area. For information about the event, including next year’s show, visit www.rendezvousroyale.org. —