A rare portrait of George Washington has been sold by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for $2.8 million, auctioned alongside two other pieces of Americana recently deaccessioned by the museum to benefit its acquisition fund. The lots were sold in Christie’s annual live Important Americana auction, which this year brought in $9.3 million, more than doubling last year’s total.
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Starring in the sale was the 1795 portrait of Washington, one of several made by Gilbert Stuart, the first President’s most famous portraitist. It was long owned by the Philips, a prominent English family of textile merchants who were close friends of the Washingtons. Eventually acquired by businessman and art collector Richard De Wolfe Brixey, the portrait was bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art upon his death in 1943.
The portrait is one of fourteen known renditions made by Stuart. Another remains in the Met’s collection, while the other works are held by universities and museums and in four private collections.
How often does the Met sell artwork?
The Met regularly deaccessions artwork, with a particular focus on liquidating duplicates in its collection. Deaccessioned works can bring in between $45,000 and $25 million annually, according to a 2021 blog post by Met director Max Hollein. In 2022, the museum sold one of two Pablo Picasso bronze casts in its holdings for $48 million to fund future acquisitions. It auctioned off more than 200 duplicate photographs and art prints the year prior to make up for revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to the Washington portrait, the museum sold a pair of pocket pistols belonging to Alexander Hamilton that sold for $819,000. Bearing Hamilton’s engraved initials and intended for civilian use, the pistols were originally sized to be carried inside a coat pocket.
They were sold to the Met in 1950 by Hamilton’s great-great-grandson Schuyler van Cortlandt Hamilton and are one of only two surviving pairs confirmed to have been owned by the Founding Father. The other pair of pistols sold for $1.1 million at auction in 2021. Meanwhile, a third pair of pistols associated with Hamilton and used in his famous 1804 duel with Aaron Burr are currently in the collection of JP Morgan Chase.
The third item deaccessioned by the Met was a double-barreled shotgun owned by John Jay, another Founding Father. Selling for $30,000, the gun was acquired by the museum in 1955 and contains Jay’s engraved name on the butt plate.
The Met wasn’t the only cultural institution selling items in Important Americana to aid future acquisitions. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, a nonprofit dedicated to U.S. history education, also offered up a Rembrandt Peale portrait of George Washington. Selling for $529,000, the proceeds will benefit the organization’s acquisitions and direct care fund.
