Mel Gibson Sells Art At A Loss

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
May 21st 2010 at 3:01PM

Mel Gibson may be a fan of Maxfield Parrish's art but it's looking like the art wasn't such a good investment for the actor and his soon-to-be ex-wife Robyn. One of their paintings, Maxfield Parrish's famous 1922 "Daybreak" sold for $5.234 million at Christie's in New York, on the lower end of the $4 million to $7 million presale estimate. Bloomberg News reports that Robyn Gibson paid $7.632 million for the painting at Christie's in 2006 setting an auction record for the work of the American artist.

The field of Maxfield Parrish collectors is far smaller than artists like Picasso or Warhol. Parrish's unabashed sentimentality isn't popular with most people. It's no surprise that Michael Jackson was a fine of Parrish's idealized scenes. In fact the video for "You Are Not Alone" was inspired by Daybreak. Jim Halperin, co-chairman of Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, was one of the bidders on Daybreak but lost out to another bidder. He told Bloomberg that the sale was a great deal, a view confirmed by other experts. The piece is the most coveted and famous of Parrish's works.

Another Gibson Parrish, "Sing A Song of Sixpence," a mural which hung at Old Mill Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut, sold for 2.2 million against an estimate of $2.5-$3.5 million. The Art Newspaper reveals that the Gibson consignment brought $10,991,500 against estimates of $9,789,000-$15,657,000.

Faring far better was Andrew Wyeth's Off Shore, 1967, which sold for $6,354,500 against estimates of $1.2 million -$4.8 million.

Tags: american art, maxfield parrish, mel gibson