Donald Trump’s Drawing of the New York City Skyline Just Sold for $29,184 at Auction

The president's sketch was made for a charity event in 2005.

Donald Trump Untitled (2005). Photo: courtesy of Nate D. Sanders auctions.

He’s had careers in real estate, reality TV, politics, and now art. A drawing of the Manhattan skyline by President Donald Trump sold at auction for $29,184 on Thursday night.

According to Los Angeles-based auction house Nate D. Sanders, the work was created by the president for a charity auction promoting worldwide literacy in 2005 and was consigned to the auction house by the winner of the original charity event. The charity auction also included works by fellow Republican John McCain, and former Democrat Senator Joseph Lieberman, as well as actors Charlize Theron and Benicio Del Toro.

The sketch is drawn on a large envelope made of a stock type of paper, and according to Michael Kirk of Nate D. Sanders auctioneers, there are only two other known variants of the drawing. The variants “feature the same skyline with slight variations,” making it an extremely rare example of presidential memorabilia. On Thursday night, there were 11 bids for the drawing, starting at $9,000.

“It’s a piece of art from a U.S. President, so it’s attracted interest from not just Trump followers, but also presidential memorabilia collectors,” Kirk told artnet News in an email. “It’s received a lot of global press, so the interest level has been high. The piece has received some five times more than our normal auction traffic,” he revealed.

Despite his brief foray into drawing, Trump has been criticized for his policy on the arts after threatening to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts. That likely won’t happen in the coming year, however, as the House Appropriations Committee last week approved a bill that would fund the endowment at $145 million through 2018.


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