Parke-Bernet Galleries is an American auction house, founded in 1937, acquired by Sotheby's in 1964, and later reintroduced. The company was founded by a group of employees of the American Art Association, including Otto Bernet, Hiram H. Parke, Leslie A. Hyam, Lewis Marion and Mary Vandergrift. By 1964, the company was the largest auction house in America,
History
The company was founded in 1937, by a group of forty former employees of the American Art Association,
including Otto Bernet, Hiram H. Parke, Leslie A. Hyam, Lewis Marion and Mary Vandergrift. In January 1938, the first auction was held in a gallery at 742
Fifth Avenue. The next year, the company took over the American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, consisting of the American Art Association and the Anderson Galleries (formerly Anderson Auction Company).
Parke-Bernet oversaw the sale of the estate of , a prominent art collector, whose estate included works by
Raoul Dufy,
Alfred Sisley and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The collection sold for over 2 million pounds in 1957, a record. Other customers of the company included
Rockefellers,
Vanderbilts,
Paul Mellon and Henry Ford II. Ford's purchase of
La Serre by Renoir through Parke-Bernet was a world record.
Parke-Bernet also oversaw the sale of the estate of
Hagop Kevorkian, the Armenian archaeologist, antiquities dealer, and philanthropist whose foundation gave major contributions to support the study of the Near East and Middle East at the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, and Columbia University.
Building
The Parke-Bernet Galleries building is a building in New York City at 980
Madison Avenue that served as the headquarters of Parke-Bernet Galleries from its opening on November 10, 1949, to its sale in 1987.
Sources
Further reading
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Norton, Thomas E. 100 Years of Collecting in America: The Story of Sotheby Parke Bernet (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1984)
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Towner, Wesley. The Elegant Auctioneers (New York: Hill & Wang, 1970) & (London: Victor Gollancz, 1971)
