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Some of the most recognizable artwork depicting the American West is heading to auction at Christie’s, where dozens of pieces from billionaire Bill Koch’s collection are expected to fetch at least $50 million.The in-person “Visions of the West” sale will take place in New York over two sessions beginning Jan. 20, with the final lots offered appropriately at high noon the following day. Koch’s holdings include major works by Frederic Remington, Charles Marion Russell and Albert Bierstadt, artists whose images of cowboys, Native Americans and sweeping landscapes helped define how generations came to picture the American frontier.Tylee Abbott, head of Christie’s American Art Department, said interest in Western subjects has remained strong as new audiences discover the culture and mythology of the region.“What is out West? What is over the horizon?” he mused. “It goes on to embody the American spirit.”Bill Koch’s brothers David and Charles Koch were major donors to conservative causes. Although he has pursued different ventures since a 1980s business dispute with his brothers, Bill Koch traces his longtime love of Western art to their childhood.“I was born and raised in Kansas and spent childhood summers working on my father’s ranches in Montana and Texas,” Koch said in a statement to The Associated Press. He described himself as “a child of the American Plains,” shaped by the Western art that hung in his home and the stories of the region’s past.The auction will include 16 sculptures by Remington, along with his painting “Coming to the Call,” which is expected to sell for $6 million to $8 million, according to Christie’s. There will also be both a small and large version of Remington’s “Bronco Buster” bronze sculpture. Russell’s “The Sun Worshippers” is projected to sell for $4 million to $6 million. Bierstadt’s bright vistas of mountains and plains are also among the featured works.Michael Clawson, executive editor of Western Art Collector magazine, said the esthetics of the region continue to surprise people who see them for the first time.“When you come here, there is something about the light, the atmosphere, the colors,” said Clawson, who grew up in Phoenix. He said the Western art genre has existed since the early 1800s and remains vibrant today, as younger collectors discover the genre and new artists keep it alive.And in the current century, population and wealth have surged across several Western states, with Arizona, Utah and Nevada each gaining well over a million residents since 2000. In the last decade, the median household income in the West rose from $58,000 in 2014 to almost $93,000 in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.The sale at Christie’s could attract collectors from across the nation, and the scale of the auction likely makes it one of the most significant Western art offerings in years. Christie’s has not said why Koch is selling, with the billionaire telling the AP simply, “It is time to pass along these pieces.” Associated Press writer Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this story. Corey Williams, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Sweeping taxes on imports have cost the average American household nearly $1,200 since Donald Trump returned to the White House this year, according to calculations by Democrats on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.Using Treasury Department numbers on revenue from tariffs and Goldman Sachs estimates of who ends up paying for them, the Democrats’ report Thursday found that American consumers’ share of the bill came to nearly $159 billion or $1,198 per household from February through November.“This report shows that (Trump’s) tariffs have done nothing but drive prices even higher for families,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the economic committee. “At a time when both parties should be working together to lower costs, the president’s tax on American families is simply making things more expensive.”In his second term, Trump has reversed decades of U.S. policy that favored free trade. He’s imposed double-digit tariffs on almost every country on earth. According to Yale University’s Budget Lab, the average U.S. tariff has shot up from 2.4% at the beginning of the year to 16.8%, the highest since 1935.The president argues that the import taxes will protect U.S. industries from unfair foreign competition, bring factories to the United States and raise money for the Treasury.“President Trump’s tariffs have actually secured trillions in investments to make and hire in America as well as historic trade deals that finally level the playing field for American workers and industries,” said White House Spokesman Kush Desai. “Democrats spent decades complaining about lopsided trade deals undermining the American working class, and now they’re complaining about the one president who has done something about it.”The taxes are paid by importers who typically attempt to pass along the higher costs to their customers.Democrats did well in elections last month in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere largely because voters blame Trump and the Republicans for the high cost of living, just as they’d blamed Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, for the same thing a year earlier.Economist Kimberly Clausing of the UCLA School of Law and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, last week told a House subcommittee that Trump’s tariffs amount to “the largest tax increase on American consumers in a generation, lowering standards of living for all Americans.” Clausing, a Treasury Department tax official in the Biden administration, has calculated that Trump’s import taxes “amount to an annual tax increase of about $1,700 for an average household.” Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer
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E-Commerce
Coca-Cola said Wednesday that its chief operating officer will become its next CEO in the first quarter of 2026.The Atlanta beverage giant said its board elected Henrique Braun as CEO effective March 31. James Quincey, Coke’s current chairman and CEO, will transition to executive chairman of the company.Braun, 57, has worked at Coca-Cola for three decades. Prior to assuming the COO role earlier this year, he led operations in Brazil, Latin America, Greater China and South Korea. He has held positions overseeing Coke’s supply chain, new business development, marketing, innovation, general management and bottling operations.Braun was born in California and raised in Brazil. He holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from the University Federal of Rio de Janeiro, a master of science degree from Michigan State University and an MBA from Georgia State University.David Weinberg, Coca-Cola’s lead independent director, called Quincey, 60, a “transformative leader” who will continue to remain active in the business.During Quincey’s nine years as CEO, Coke added more than 10 additional billion-dollar brands, including BodyArmor and Fairlife. He also brought Coke into the alcoholic drink market with Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, which went on sale in 2021.In 2020, Quincey led a restructuring that reduced Coke’s brands by half and laid off thousands of employees. Quincey said Coke wanted to streamline its structure and focus its investments on fast-growing products like its Simply and Minute Maid juices.But as Quincey steps down as CEO, Coke is facing numerous challenges, including tepid demand for its products in the U.S. and Europe and increasing customer scrutiny of its ingredients. This summer, after a nudge from President Donald Trump, Coke said it would release a version of its trademark Cola with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup.Weinberg said the board is confident that Braun will build on the company’s strengths and seek out growth opportunities globally.Coke shares were flat in after-market trading. Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
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