On December 3rd and 4th 2005, only three months after Hurricane Katrina, Neal Auction Company of New Orleans (www.nealauction.com) presented its greatly anticipated annual Louisiana Purchase Auction™. The sale would ordinarily have been held at the Magazine Street gallery in the heart of uptown New Orleans, at the end of a steamy Southern summer when early fall days bring promise of relief from the heat. Instead, the auction was held on a calm and cold rainy weekend in Jackson, Mississippi, far from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. The obstacles overcome by Neal Auction staff in presenting this sale demonstrate the spirit of fidelity and passion that is reflected in New Orleans culture.

The Rise of the Regional Art Market

The regional auction house has become a powerful market for specialization. Following the conglomeration of the major auction houses and the phasing out of arcade style auctions, companies such as Neal Auction offer a mid-size marketplace in which both buyers and sellers can benefit. The Louisiana Purchase Auction™ is one of the most important auction events in the genre of Americana, specifically that of Southern material culture. This sale featured art from the Collection of the Walter Anderson Family, property descended in the family of Jacques Philippe Roi de Villere, the 1st Native Governor of Louisiana, the Natural History Collection of Louisiana Governor John M. Parker (1920-1924), and property from the family of Kentucky Col. Edmund H. Taylor, founder of Old Taylor Whiskey.

The Storm’s Approach

In the days prior to Katrina, Michelle Leblanc Leckert, Neal Auction Company’s Director of Administration and Finance, and her husband Jason Leckert, Inventory Manager, were on vacation in Gulf Shores, Mississippi with their daughter and extended family. Back in New Orleans, it was a “catalog Saturday.” Staff cataloging over 1,100 lots for the Louisiana Purchase Auction™ scheduled for October 8th and 9th also awaited word of the hurricane’s direction. Within hours, the direction and intensity of the storm became clearer. The Operations staff began to board up the windows while staff members Rachel Weathers and Kate Soloway carried paintings to the third floor. Phone lines were already overwhelmed – only a precursor to the soon-to-be-ubiquitous busy signals and recordings that would attend any attempt to dial within the city – but where possible employees not on site were notified via cell phone of the closing of the galleries. One dedicated staff member, Mark Fagan, unable to make contact by phone, simply went to the gallery to find the building boarded. He later evacuated to New York.

Neal Alford, President and auctioneer of Neal, left the city, wisely taking the computer server to the company’s new temporary location in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, first taking refuge in Tennessee where the Chairman of the Board, John R. Neal, resides. Meanwhile, Michelle and Jason Leckert, having abandoned their vacation in Mississippi upon hearing news of the approaching storm, gathered with other staff at a horse ranch south of Baton Rouge. There, they helplessly followed the news of family businesses burned to the ground and rising waters filling the neighborhoods they called home.

By August 29 at 6:10 am when the full force of Katrina struck, the close-knit staff of Neal Auction Company had lost contact with each other. In St. Bernard Parish, the breach of the levees combined with the storm surge from the Mississippi Gulf outlet left 70,000 people homeless and destroyed the homes of each and every family member of Neal employee Lisa Weisdorffer. Her family had been residents of the Parish for over forty years. Lisa herself evacuated to Dallas to stay with fellow employee Rachel Weathers and her family.

The Aftermath

Within two weeks of the storm, contact information posted on the Company website had succeeded in locating the staff. Paychecks were sent to locations all across the country, proceeds from the August auction preceding the storm were distributed to consignors, and, when business owners were once again allowed entrance to the city to check their property, Neal Auction operations staff returned to New Orleans.

Neal Auction Company was fortunate not to have suffered any significant physical damage. The managing staff’s greatest concerns were the safety of staff and associates, and the company’s ability to continue supporting employees, consignors, and buyers. In mid-September, Neal Alford, responding to the continued mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, announced that the important Louisiana Purchase Auction™ would indeed be held on December 3rd and 4th, albeit at a different venue.

The Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson was offering climate controlled storage to affected cultural institutions and Neal Alford, along with Kate Hovas, VP of Neal Auction, arranged to use it as a venue. The greater task was the safe transport of the sale’s merchandise from New Orleans to Jackson through 180 miles of downed power lines, detours and gas shortages. Director of Operations Charles Lee, returning from temporary relocation to Houston, made several trips with his staff, loading and unloading furniture in the dark, without power or air conditioning, in a city of ruins.

Staff member Carolyn Finnell laid out the remainder of the catalog from her home on the Northshore, photography was somehow completed, staff flew in from around the country to complete condition reports, and on December 2nd the preview of the sale, which filled nine rooms of the Mississippi Arts Pavilion, opened to the public.

The Louisiana Purchase Auction™

Since its inception in 1983, Neal Auction Company has been the premiere venue for Southern artistry. Artists have been drawn to Louisiana by the abundance of wildlife, the charm of life slowed down, and the unique light emanated by Louisiana’s bayous and swamplands. One cannot deny the magic of this region as portrayed by artists such as John James Audubon, George Louis Viavant, William Henry Buck, or Joseph Rusling Meeker, nor the unique style of New Orleans architecture as depicted by Robert Wadsworth Grafton or Alberta Kinsey. Sales of works by such artists were indeed stronger than typical in this atypical sale.

William Henry Buck (Norwegian/New Orleans, 1840-1888), “The Wooden Bridge: Louisiana Bayou Landscape,” oil on canvas, brought $102,750.00 in December sale (lot 424)

Images reproduced with the permission of Neal Auction Company

Robert Wadsworth Grafton (American, 1876-1936, active New Orleans, 1916-20), “St. Louis Cathedral—New Orleans,” fetched $76,350.00 in the December sale (lot 204)

Images reproduced with the permission of Neal Auction Company

Southern provenance does not always denote the work of Southern artists, it often indicates the fine tastes of 19th century Southern gentility, and the influx of cabinetmakers and artists into the South to fill this desire. Neal Auction typically features furniture by craftsmen such as the Herter Brothers and John Henry Belter.

A Rare Herter Bros. Inlaid and Painted Rosewood Cabinet, c. 1870, sold for $80,750.00 in the December sale (lot 329)

Images reproduced with the permission of Neal Auction Company

In this genre too, sales were strong. Perhaps anticipation of as-yet uncalculated cultural losses fueled some of the high prices, but preservation of culture shared an equal role. Indeed, a portion of the proceeds was committed to the Parkway Partners Program, an organization once dedicated to preserving the lush city of New Orleans and now dedicated to restoring it, entrance fees to the preview benefited the Mississippi Museum of Art, and Neal Auction donated a percentage of the price realized for all works by Mississippi artists, including Marie Atkinson Hull and Walter Inglis Anderson. The sale of the Anderson works is of particular importance in the darkness of the devastation suffered by the family’s private collection; about 90% of their original artwork was submerged in the storm’s waters (www.walteringlisanderson.com).

THE RETURN HOME

Since the December sale Neal Auction Company has welcomed home an astonishing 20% of its staff. All absent staff are in good health although many suffered personal losses. Some will never return to Neal, having chosen to reside elsewhere, or to pursue other professions in a city with a new and desperate need for employees.

On March 4th and 5th, 2006, Neal Auction Company presented its first sale at its New Orleans location since Katrina. Results were equally astonishing; the nearly 1,500 registered bidders included local and regional dealers and collectors as well as international buyers from the UK, France, Italy, Russia, Germany, Canada and the Caribbean. The bidding realized a final sale total of $1,805,328 – much higher than anticipated for this post Louisiana Purchase sale.

If there were indications of the replenishment of lost belongings in this sale, there were notes of nostalgia as well. Most noticeable, however, was the gentility, generosity, and determination of the residents who have returned to the city of New Orleans.

The Future

The market for Southern regional material is strong, and will likely generate greater interest in the future, but this author had great difficulty focusing on the matter presented. How can one speak of sale results on luxury items only months after basic needs were the true luxury? Even as businesses and displaced residents continue their return to the city and the Carnival festivities proceeded, the city is burdened by a heartbreak that will be healed neither by rebuilding, nor restoring.

Those who haves taken a moonlight stroll in the city with the scent of night-blooming jasmine affording the only true sense of reality, or who have endured a humid summer day “stoop sitting” and sharing languid moments with neighbors and the anonymous passer-by – they know the real material culture of New Orleans. They will fight to restore, and more importantly, elevate it to a higher standard.