More Auction Miscellany William E. Elston: Fine Arts

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'99: Elliott Bay' was on eBay, priced optimistically at $10,000 with current bid at $7,000. It was purchased at Foster White Gallery in 1985 by the Columbia Club, at the top of what was then called Columbia Tower. I’m not sure how the current owner acquired it. It has slight damage, a small tear.

The painted sketch of a fundraising event was done very rapidly at a fundraiser for the Bellevue Art Museum. The museum supplied canvas and water-soluble oil paint (horrible stuff.) The painting was executed while a full-blown party was in progress, and then auctioned to the inebriated patrons of the museum. It was improvised from the scene in front of me; folding tables, balloons, dames, dowagers and high rollers.

'Big Dirty City' depicts the view from the steps of the New York Post Office on 34th St. and 8th Ave. It was done during one of my many visits there, and sold at Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, OR. I do not recall who the buyer was, but the painting came up in an estate sale a few years ago.

Several pieces that were in the late Ako Lindley’s estate came up in an October 9 Mroczek Brothers auction, including one lot of three paintings (probably sketches,) a study for a Hollywood Hills commission, and an unnamed Fishermen’s Terminal painting, (depicted above.) I have seen few, if any, of my major works hit the secondary market. There have been some instances when, at the sale of the estate of a significant Northwest collector, I’ve been told that the heirs wanted to keep my work. For that reason very few of my paintings have been tested. It should be noted that art auctions in the Pacific Northwest do not receive the public relations fanfare that the major auction houses on the East Coast and in Europe enjoy, consequently the price points cannot be considered definitive.