Appraiser examines the sale of Randolph College painting

Guitar in hand and accompanied by a two-woman audience, the troubadour on the canvas sings on, unaware of his value within the world of art collectors.

The roughly 5-feet-tall, 4-feet-wide canvas in which he resides is filled with an array of yellow, blue, pink and gray oils — perhaps $100 in art supplies, applied with the talent and technique of Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo in 1945.

Art experts say a combination of factors made Randolph College’s “Trovador” worthy of a record-breaking $7.2 million anonymous phone bid at a Christie’s auction in May, even in the face of an American economic downturn and the declining dollar.

“The condition (of the Tamayo) was flawless, and that’s a big factor in estimating the value of a work of art,” said Washington-based art appraiser Ted Cooper, who has appraised the Maier Museum’s roughly $100 million collection four times since the 1980s, most recently last year.

The college announced last October that it had plans to sell four paintings from its Maier Museum of Art to boost the school’s $153 million endowment and lower a high spending rate. Opponents say such auctions violate widely accepted ethical guidelines, which dictate that art sale proceeds should be used only to strengthen the collection.

Cooper said 22 factors determine a piece’s value. In the Tamayo’s case, he said, one key was that the painting had not been to market since it was given to the college in 1949.

“That is equivalent to being fresh on the market,” he said, “and pictures that are fresh on the market have a special appeal to collectors. They haven’t been shopped around at the auction houses, and they haven’t been artistic footballs between dealers and art houses and collectors.”

The painting also is well-known among collectors of Latin American artwork, Cooper said.

Contrary to the economic downturn, the art market is “very strong,” Cooper said.

“A lot of people with disposable income, when the economy is in a recession, look toward buying art as a hedge against losses in the stock market,” he said. “They might rather buy a major work of art than 10,000 shares of some company… Art very rarely depreciates.”

Amy Gold, deputy chairman of Christie’s Americas, said it was “the perfect auction mix.”

“This was a picture from one of (Tamayo’s) greatest periods. It was fresh to the market. It had all the hallmarks of a great picture,” she said. “People were willing to go far above the estimate.”

Leading up to an auction, Christie’s works to increase interest in the art, Gold said.

A private sale is often preferred for secretive sales, she said, but an auction is much more open.

“It’s completely clear what’s happening; There’s no sense of misdoing, and everyone can come to the table,” she said.

For pieces to be sold at auction, Christie’s takes pictures of the art, performs light cleanings if necessary and researches the history of the piece for internationally distributed catalogues.

Major works also may be advertised or taken on tours before the auction, Gold said, and the auction house contacts clients who may hold interest in bidding.

The cost of all that is covered by commission rates paid by the seller, Gold said.

“It’s an incredibly expensive cost to sell a picture,” she said.

Included in the auction price is the buyer’s premium, which is a percentage the buyerpays on top of their final bid. In Christie’s auctions in the U.S., the premium percentage ranges from 12 percent to 25 percent.

“That’s really how we make our money,” Gold said.

The $7.2 million “Trovador” price included a roughly $800,000 buyer’s premium on top of the college’s share of $6.4 million.

Christie’s also sets the estimated value of the art based on the state of the market and how similar paintings have sold. “Trovador” was set at $2 million to $3 million.

“We often think a painting could go beyond (the estimate),” Gold said. “But in the end, the estimate has to be enticing.”

New York-based appraiser Debra Force, who also has performed appraisals at the Maier, said that by law, any reserve price on the painting must be set below the low-end estimate.

Cooper said the high sale price suggests the estimate price may have been set low to draw more bidders and generate higher interest.

“The picture brought a very, very healthy price, so I’m sure there are smiles all around,” he said. “But I think it will be interesting to see what the other paintings sell for.”

In total, the four paintings are expected to raise at least $32 million.

The most valuable of those, George Bellows’ “Men of the Docks,” is estimated at $25 million to $35 million.

“I would certainly expect it to sell in at least that range,” Cooper said. “It’s a very gritty work of art — it’s not a picture for everyone, but it is definitely a picture for a Bellows connoisseur, like Bill Gates. We’ll see.”

As for a “Peaceable Kingdom,” from the series by Edward Hicks, it is expected to bring $4 million to $6 million.

“That one may be more difficult to sell,” said Force, since another painting in the series was recently sold at auction, and two others are scheduled in upcoming auctions.

Cooper agreed.

“This would not be a good time to sell the Hicks,” he said. “You would want to put it in the marketplace when there are no others.”

The final painting, Ernest Hennings’ “Through the Arroyo,” has an estimated value of $1 million to $1.5 million.

“It’s not a masterpiece like the Tamayo,” Cooper said of the painting. “I wouldn’t expect an eye-popping price.”

The million-dollar pricetags on art can be frustrating to local artists like Patricia Harrington, who has painted her whole life.

“(We have) lost all the aesthetic effectiveness of these works of art,” she said. “It gets reduced to dollars and cents, a commodity.”

But there are plenty of options for the local art enthusiast who doesn’t have millions to spend, she said, ranging from art clubs and schools to plenty of galleries and studios.

“There’s about three or four new galleries in Lynchburg, which tells me there’s a lot of interest and movement of paintings,” she said. “There’s a very active art community.”

Local art collector Sandra Whitehead builds her collection around artists from Virginia and Maine, she said, plus the occasional piece from other places she and her husband Paul visit.

“It’s more impulsive,” she said. “I don’t necessarily go looking for something specific. I think we tend to buy art because we like it, not because we need something over the sofa. It has to speak to you.”

Gold said most art does not sell at such a high amount.

“What makes the news, of course, are things selling for $80 million,” she said. “But the truth of the matter is anyone can walk in here, anyone can look online, and anyone can participate in the auction process, and it’s a really fun way to start collecting.”

Christie’s more than 600 sales annually range in price from $200 to more than $80 million, according to the Christie’s Web site.

Force said the value of a piece is all about the talent and technique behind it — another artist could take the same blank canvas and oils used for the Tamayo piece and create something not even worth the cost of materials.