Wyeth Watercolors From Wallis Estate Sell for $450,000

Three Andrew Wyeth watercolors that figure in a court battle between the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and a foundation set up by the late film producer Hal B. Wallis were sold at auction Thursday for $450,000.

The sale at Christie’s in New York occurred after attorneys for the museum and the foundation agreed to include proceeds from the three Wyeth works in an escrow account containing the $39.6 million brought by the May 10 sale of eight Impressionist paintings from the Wallis collection.

The escrow agreement extends until June 6, the date of a previously scheduled hearing in state court in Manhattan at which a judge will hear arguments on a permanent injunction blocking transfer of sale proceeds to the Wallis Foundation.

The agreement stipulates that the museum will not attempt to block transfer of title to the paintings to the people who purchased them. The museum previously had said it would not interfere with delivery of the Impressionist works to their new owners. The litigation involves a dispute between the foundation, based in Toluca Lake, and the museum that art experts say is unique.

In the lawsuit filed last week, the museum accused the foundation of keeping secret a letter of instruction signed by Wallis in which the film producer instructed the foundation to make the artworks available to the museum on “permanent loan” and to remove them only for display at another public museum.

Earlier this year, the foundation took the paintings back in preparation for their sale, contending the escalating art market necessitated the step to provide funds for charitable grants the foundation planned to make.

The Wyeth paintings sold Thursday include “Head Gate,” which went at Christie’s for $120,000, “Sundown,” which brought $165,000, and “The Grist Mill,” which sold for $165,000. Unlike the Impressionist works by such masters as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro that were sold earlier this month, the Wyeths represent work in which the Los Angeles County museum’s collection is comparatively rich.

Museum director Earl A. Powell noted that while the Wyeths are high quality paintings, the museum’s permanent collection contains an ample supply of similar paintings while the Impressionist works are unique and considered irreplaceable.

Martin Gold, the New York attorney representing the foundation, said the Wallis group agreed to the extended escrow as an expedient after the museum threatened Wednesday night to seek a court order blocking the sale. The escrow, signed by Gold and Martin Glenn, the museum’s New York lawyer, contained the characterization by the foundation that the museum’s contentions are “frivolous.”