5 minutes, $5 million

01:33 AM EST on Friday, December 16, 2005

BY BILL VAN SICLEN
Journal Arts Writer

NEW YORK -- In the end, the birds barely had time to blink.

Related

Take a multimedia look at the Audubon prints and their history

More about the sale from Christie's

More about the Providence Athenaeum

Less than five minutes after Christie's auctioneer Francis Wahlgren opened the bidding, the Providence Athenaeum's prized double elephant edition of John James Audubon's The Birds of America had flown the coop -- sold to an anonymous phone buyer for $5 million.

The price, which rose to nearly $5.62 million with the addition of Christie's commission, was at the low end of pre-auction estimates of $5 million to $7 million. It was also well below the all-time record of $8.8 million for a complete set of Audubon bird engravings, set at Christie's in 2000.

Nevertheless, Athenaeum officials who attended the sale at Christie's Rockefeller Center headquarters said they were pleased with the auction's outcome.

"I'm extremely happy with the way things turned out," said Athenaeum Executive Director Alison Maxell. "For years, we've had to put off doing things because we didn't have the money. Now we have the means to move forward and make the Athenaeum the kind of vital institution we all want it to be."

Asked whether the $5-million payday was a disappointment, Maxell responded politely but firmly: "Of course, a higher price would have been great, but frankly I have a hard time thinking of $5 million as a disappointment."

Wahlgren, who heads Christie's rare books department and who served as the auctioneer for the late-afternoon sale, took a more philosophical view. Asked why bidding on the Athenaeum's copy of Birds had remained relatively earthbound, he noted that auction dynamics are notoriously hard to predict.

"Every auction is different -- different bidders, different atmosphere, different feeling," he said. "In this case, the atmosphere was somewhat subdued. Still, I think $5 million is a very good price."

Yet Wahlgren also said that the controversy surrounding the sale, including a nearly three-year legal battle that pitted rival Athenaeum factions against each other, may have dampened some buyers' enthusiasm.

"There's no way to know for sure, but it's possible that some people were put off by the way this particular copy of Birds came to the market," he said.

WHATEVER THE REASON, buyers' interest in the set of 435 poster-size engravings never really took flight. After Wahlgren opened the sale at $2.8 million, the bidding increased in fits and starts, often punctuated by long silences. It took several seconds, for example, for bidders to make their way from $4 million to $4.5 million -- an eternity in the fast-paced auction world.

Christie's Images Ltd. 2005

American Flamingo, Plate 431, was one of the prints in the collection.

By the time Wahlgren gaveled the auction to a close, the tepid applause at the winning $5-million bid felt more like an expression of relief than a collective jump for joy.

Before yesterday's sale, Athenaeum officials had every reason to think the final sale price might exceed Christie's estimates. Not only was their version of Audubon's masterpiece in mint condition, but it was one of only 84 copies purchased in advance from Audubon himself. (Selling copies in advance helped Audubon cover the huge costs of publishing The Birds of America -- a project that took him more than a decade.) Audubon also visited the Athenaeum in 1840, shortly after completing his work on Birds in 1838.

To opponents of the sale, those historical ties to Providence and the Athenaeum were also reasons for keeping the double-elephant folio (the term refers to the large size of the engravings), which had been in the Athenaeum's possession for more than 150 years and was considered its most valuable asset.

First in Superior Court and later in the state Supreme Court, they argued that Athenaeum leaders were trying to sell the Audubon to cover up their own mismanagement of the library's finances.

The case was finally settled last fall, when a judge found that Athenaeum leaders had acted in good faith. That, in turn, cleared the way for yesterday's auction.

The Athenaeum still owns a copy of a smaller "royal octavo" edition of Birds. Brown University's John Hay Library owns original copies of both the double elephant and the royal octavo folios.

After the Christie's sale, Maxell and Athenaeum president Betty Lang Rawls said the money would be used to shore up the Athenaeum's endowment, which has failed to keep pace with the library's financial needs. They also said some money could be used for much-needed repairs to the Athenaeum's Benefit Street headquarters.

Interestingly, money was the motivation for the Athenaeum's original purchase of Birds. Athenaeum leaders hoped to raise money by charging admission to see Audubon's lushly colored engravings.

The better part of two centuries later, that investment finally paid off.

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MULTIMEDIA: View the Audubon prints sold at auction, and hear Journal arts writer Bill Van Siclen explain their history, at:

http://projo.com/audubon