Minnesota auction house to sell 90 artworks, including 3 Warhol screenprints and a Dr. Seuss sculpture

An Andy Warhol “Chicken Noodle Soup” screenprint purchased for about $1,000 in the 1990s is up for sale. The bidding starts at $15,000.

There’s also a Picasso etching, a Dr. Seuss sculpture and two other Warhol screenprints among the more than 90 artworks for sale starting Tuesday at noon in “The Annual Fine Sale” — an online-only auction by St. Paul-based Revere Auctions.

On a Thursday, Revere Auctions co-owners Sean Blanchet and Robert Snell hung dozens of artworks in a front gallery of their 10,000-square-foot warehouse in St. Paul.

They welcomed local art lovers to the first public display of art for sale at the annual auction.

“Do we put up the fancy stuff, or do we put up the stuff that local people are more likely to buy?” Blanchet said. “The stuff that’s under $10,000 is much more likely to be sold locally than the stuff that’s over.”

The auction includes works from about 20 estates, including the late art dealer Dolly Fiterman and late philanthropist Gary Fink, former director of the quirky Minneapolis skyway museum Louvre It or Leave It.

Artworks in this auction are expected to fetch anywhere between $3,000-$150,000.

Artists don’t receive any of the money from secondary market sales at auction houses.

Deborah Butterfield’s massive steel horse sculpture “Echo” was laid on its side. A centerpiece of the Fink collection, it used to stand at attention in the Louvre It or Leave It skyway museum.

Another gem — a 1938 unicorn clay sculpture by Dr. Seuss — sat on a glass shelf.

“Dr. Seuss made these resin sculptures based on his animals that are taxidermied, so they’re crazy animals,” Snell said.

The sculpture likely was a model that Dr. Seuss used to make 1,500 more artworks. Snell estimated that it would go for about $20,000.

The Steggers have been going to Revere Auctions since it opened in 2018. They purchased an artwork that’s now the centerpiece of their living room.

On Thursday, they searched for something that could brighten up their historic home.

Libby had her eyes on Humberto Calzada’s “Tyranny of Patience II,” a large, colorful painting of a roofless room with a checkerboard floor that stretches toward a body of water.

“I don’t know that we have the wall space quite for that piece, but I love the vibrant colors,” she said.

Willem checked out a painting of flowers encased in a gold frame. Libby admired the Butterfield sculpture of a steel horse.

Roger Cloutier of Minneapolis examined the 1912 Maurice Prendergast painting “Lake in Maine.”

“My father got that for working with the artist’s sister-in-law Eugenie Prendergast,” Cloutier said. “He got that as a reward for helping set up the Prendergast Foundation.”

The painting has been in the family since 1971.

“We’ve been back to Maine a lot, so it has this sentimental value,” he said. “We’ve been considering selling it for quite awhile.”