Rare Clyfford Still paintings likely to earn millions for Denver museum

The eyes of the international art world will be on the work of painter Clyfford Still on Wednesday evening, when four of the late artist's rare paintings are expected to earn millions at a New York auction, with the proceeds to benefit a new Denver museum devoted to him.

Sotheby's estimates that the works, which date from 1940 to 1976 and offer a cross-section of the abstract expressionist's output, could bring in somewhere between $51 million and $71.5 million.

Fifteen percent of the proceeds or $15 million — whichever is less — will be taken by Sotheby's as a commission.

The rest will go to an endowment that will assure the financial viability of the privately funded Clyfford Still Museum, which opens Nov. 18. The money will be used for everything from research to general operations.

The four works were bequeathed to the city by Patricia Still, the artist's widow, who died in 2005. She endowed about 2,000 pieces from her husband's collection to Denver in 2004 on the agreement that the city would oversee the construction of a museum to house them. After her death, about 400 more works from her estate, including the four up for sale, also went to Denver.

Still is considered one of the most important artists in abstract expressionism, in the company of Jackson Pollock​ and Mark Rothko​.

According to the November issue of Art + Auction magazine, the quartet of works is the "most impressive offering" in this week's contemporary sales at the major auction houses in New York.

"The audience has been responsive to these paintings," Tobias Meyer, worldwide head of contemporary art and principal auctioneer for Sotheby's, said Monday. "They've been very much admired, and we expect a very good result for Wednesday night."

After showings in London and Hong Kong in October, the four paintings have been on view for two weeks in Sotheby's New York galleries in anticipation of the sale.

The big question, emblazoned on Art + Auction's cover, is whether the largest of the four works, "1949-A-No. 1," will top the record for a Still painting of $21,296,000, which was set in 2006. Noting that the 1949 piece is estimated to sell for $25 million to $35 million, Meyer is confident that will happen.

Driving the market for Still's works is simple supply and demand. About 94 percent of the works he produced will be housed in the Still Museum, and, according to director Dean Sobel, only about 40 pieces by the artist remain in private hands.

"We gave them auction estimates that we felt were appropriate for what has happened in the market before," Meyer said of the four works to be sold. "But it's hard to say what will happen that night because it is such a rare event."