Gold Rush for Bill Koch’s Wild West Art
3 min read · 26 Jan 2026
Frederic Remington's The Broncho Buster (large version). Cast in 1915. Image courtesy of Christie's
Billionaire William “Bill” Koch’s passion for the American frontier spans from building a Wild West–style town in Colorado, complete with a saloon to amassing an impressive array of paintings and sculptures depicting life on the range.
In New York last week, Christie’s saw a bonanza when highlights from his Western American art collection went under the hammer, earning an A‑ rating on the HENI Auction Index.
The single-collection sale, held over evening and day sessions on January 20–21, tapped into the America-first spirit, with total sales exceeding $84m with fees. It was dominated by Frederic Remington, whose auction record was surpassed twice in one night as collectors fiercely competed for prized works.
The Koch single-collection sale scores an A- on the HENI Auction Index on a par with sales dominated by Modern art.
The Koch sale was slightly smaller than the usual single-collection sale, with 76 lots in total versus a typical 100 but total sales revenue was only 20% below comparable sales, which tend to be dominated by Modern and contemporary art.
The HENI Auction Index is based on more than ten metrics, including the percentages of lots selling above the low and high estimates. The Koch sale surpassed the averages in comparable sales by 9 and 14 percentage points respectively.
The sale also earned its A- score because only 5% of the lots were bought-in, better than the typical 8%.
Remington’s Coming to the Call (1905) became the most expensive work by the artist to sell at auction when the canvas sold for $13.29m with fees. It overtook another of his paintings, An Argument with the Town Marshall (1905), which had just sold for $11.85m with fees.
President Trump is a Remington fan. An edition of his most famous cowboy bronze, The Broncho Buster, is displayed prominently in the Oval Office. Koch consigned two to Christie’s, both of which galloped past their low estimates. An 1898 edition sold for nearly $700,000 with fees while a larger version cast in 2015 fetched $1.4m.
Remington did not completely dominate proceedings, however. The outperformer was a record-breaking bronze of a Native American on horseback by Cyrus Edwin Dallin.
The sculptor's Appeal to the Great Spirit (1919) sold for $571,500 with fees, four times its low estimate and an 80% rise of his auction record. A monumental version of the sculpture has stood outside the Museum of Fine Arts Boston greeting visitors for more than a century.
The Koch sale of Western American art was slightly smaller than typical single-collection sales. The total number of lots traded (76) was 25% below average.
Percentages of lots selling above low/high estimates surpassed the averages in comparable sales, by 9 and 14 percentage points respectively.
Only 5% of the lots were bought-in, better than the typical 8%.
The average hammer to mid-estimate ratio was in line with comparable sales, at 1.6.
Methodology: for how the HENI Auction Index classifies sales, see here
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