Like Christie’s, Sotheby’s realized strong prices for Western art. Works spanning the 20th century from the estate of the Santa Fe collector R. Michael Kammerer Jr. fetched a combined $7 million. By late afternoon, 10 bronzes, put up by an anonymous American collector to benefit an unidentified charity, had made $11.6 million. Eight of the figures were by Remington, including The Wounded Bunkie, 1896 (est. $3–5 million). Avery Galleries paid a record $5,641,000 for the pair of troopers on galloping steeds.

“Sales felt very healthy,” says William Burford of the Texas Art Gallery. “But when you compare the Western art market with the modern, it’s still quite inexpensive. We look almost laughable compared with an $86 million Bacon.”

"Auction Reviews: American Art" originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's July 2008 Table of Contents.