Judd Tully isolates an interesting trend, the artist Walton Ford, who is no stranger to press attention, is finally getting some heat on the art market. Phillips de Pury has kicked off market trends before. There’s no reason to believe that this Ford boomlet won’t be another:

Walton Ford’s obsessively realistic and grandly-scaled 2008 triptych in watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper, Loss of the Lisbon Rhinoceros (est. $550-750,000), […] sold in the room for a record $1,022,500. Berlin–based Heinrich Hohenlohe of Simon Dickinson Gallery was the underbidder. […] The top lot of the day was […] Walton Ford’s 2006 La Fontaine, in watercolor, gouache, graphite, and ink on paper, depicting a lion tucking into a live crocodile. Estimated to earn $250-350,000, it eventually sold for $746,500

Richard Prince’s Nurse Sells for $65 Million at Phillips Confirming Market’s Health (ArtInfo.com)

Halsey Minor Finds Another $3 Million at Phillips Day Sale (ArtInfo.com)