SANTA ANA : 5 Artworks Fail to Get Minimum Bids

The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday failed to get the minimum $10,500 it sought for five artworks said to be creations of Salvador Dali at a public auction and will try to sell the pieces again next spring, officials said.

When the artworks were offered separately for bids, the total of the five highest bids was only $4,540. Of the estimated 50 people who attended the auction, several expressed concern that the works might be fakes and were hesitant to offer higher bids, spokeswoman Sally Ruhnau said.

The artworks, along with several parcels of real estate, were seized for nonpayment of taxes. The five pieces consisted of two identical 1976 tapestries, “Lincoln in Dalivision”; a wood engraving, “Divine Comedy--The Misers” from 1963; and two hand-colored etchings from the “Astrology Series, “Aries” and “Leo,” both from 1984.

The IRS had the pieces appraised by Richard G. Ruskin of Ruskin Fine Arts of Los Angeles. He listed the fair-market value of each tapestry at $5,700. He appraised the wood engraving at $420, and the etchings at $240 each.

But the highest bid at the auction for either tapestry was $2,050, and “The Misers” drew a bid of only $300. Those bids came from Clay Baxter of Yorba Linda, who said he did not believe that the IRS would sell forged items.