Extensive Collection of Western Artworks Going on the Block

The ear-to-ear smile on the toddler’s face, seated on horseback in the aging photograph, shows that Katherine H. Haley’s love of all things Western began early.

As an adult, living on her family’s ranch of more than 300 acres on the southeast shore of Lake Casitas, she bred livestock. She later hosted lavish fund-raisers for Republican luminaries, volunteered for the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, and steadily increased her collection of Western art and artifacts--a collection that some experts consider legendary.

Haley died on Christmas Day last year at age 80, and her collection, now valued at between $2.1 million and $3.1 million, will be auctioned off today and Tuesday by Christie’s in the famed international auctioneer’s first “house sale” on the West Coast of the United States.

That means the entire collection is on the block, to be sold in individual pieces. The sale of Haley’s former nine-bedroom house and surrounding acreage is planned by the family for a later date.

Haley wanted the collection sold by the piece, according to her daughter-in-law Christina Haley, as a way to encourage others to embrace their Western heritage as she had done.

“She always said, ‘I had fun collecting it, now let someone else do it,’ ” Christina Haley said.

Haley died of complications of Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter-in-law said, adding that proceeds from the auction will go mainly to pay estate taxes.

The collection is amazing by any standard, said Christie’s auctioneer Andrea Fiuczynski, a senior vice president of business development. Nowhere is there a larger massing of works by cowboy artist Edward Borein, whose work Haley admired so much that she had a two-room gallery built in her home devoted to his etchings and watercolors.

But the centerpiece of the collection is Fresno-born Maynard Dixon’s 1920 romantic painting “The Pony Boy,” which Christie’s expects will fetch $500,000 to $700,000.

It depicts a young Native American resting on horseback, alone except for a herd of wild horses and a mesa in the background. The youth and his horse both gaze into the distance, hair and manes fluttering in the wind.

Haley’s parents bought the painting in 1921 from the artist, who was so fond of it he traveled from his San Francisco home to their Ventura County ranch before deciding to sell it to them for $1,500.

The collection also includes scores of period photographs, turn-of-the-century American Indian baskets, turquoise jewelry, equestrian items, plants, Japanese artwork, furniture, and a collection of ladies’ hats, dating from circa 1914.

Christie’s decided to hold open viewings--which have been held daily since last Thursday--and the auction itself on the ranch, to give buyers a sense of what fueled Haley’s love of Western art.

The auction house placed the artwork on display throughout Haley’s home and on her patio, covering over her swimming pool (which is shaped like the state of California) with planks and carpet to make room for the 1,000-plus items.

“This is such a time capsule,” Fiuczynski said. “It’s a viewpoint from her eye.”

On Sunday, the viewing drew many willing to brave the rain and pay the $40 entrance fee, which included a copy of the sale’s 323-page catalog, just to view the collection as a whole and to examine the works of Borein up close--after all, they are unlikely to be seen together in one place again.

Other visitors, such as Lois VanSchaick, 84, came because they had a more personal connection. VanSchaick rented a room on Borein’s Santa Barbara ranch when she was in college and was a friend of Haley’s. Meanwhile, actor/comedian Steve Martin said he came because he was curious about life on the ranch.

The auctions will be held today and Tuesday beginning at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. each day at Haley’s Rancho Mi Solar, 10409 Santa Ana Road, Ojai.