| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Auctioneering |
| Founded | 1937 (1937) |
| Founder | Hiram H. Parke  |
| Defunct | 1964 (1964) |
| Fate | Acquired bySotheby's |
Number of employees | 115 (1964) |
Parke-Bernet Galleries was an Americanauction house, active from 1937 to 1964, whenSotheby's purchased it. The company was founded by a group of employees of theAmerican Art Association, including Otto Bernet, Hiram H. Parke, Leslie A. Hyam, Lewis Marion and Mary Vandergrift. By 1964, the company was the largest auction house in America,[1] with 115 employees and total sales of$11 million ($112 million in 2024). That year, Sotheby's purchased a controlling interest of 75% in the gallery for $1.5 million ($15 million in 2024).[2]
The company was founded in 1937, by a group of forty former employees of theAmerican Art Association,[3] including Otto Bernet, Hiram H. Parke, Leslie A. Hyam, Lewis Marion and Mary Vandergrift. In January 1938, the first auction was held in a gallery at 742Fifth Avenue. The next year, the company took over theAmerican Art Association-Anderson Galleries, consisting of the American Art Association and theAnderson Galleries (formerly Anderson Auction Company).[4][5] Parke-Bernet oversaw the sale of the estate ofGeorges Lurcy [fr], a prominent art collector, whose estate included works byRaoul Dufy,Alfred Sisley andPierre-Auguste Renoir. The collection sold for over 2 million pounds in 1957, a record. Other customers of the company includedRockefellers,Vanderbilts,Paul Mellon andHenry Ford II. Ford's purchase ofLa Serre by Renoir through Parke-Bernet was a world record.[3] Parke-Bernet also oversaw the sale of the estate ofHagop Kevorkian, the Armenian archaeologist, antiquities dealer, and philanthropist whose foundation gave major contributions to support the study of the Near East and Middle East at theUniversity of Pennsylvania,New York University, andColumbia University.[6]
TheParke-Bernet Galleries building is a building inNew York City at 980Madison Avenue that served as the headquarters ofParke-Bernet Galleries from its opening on November 10, 1949, to its sale in 1987.[7]
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