Robert Berks American Buffalo Sculpture, 1992

Renowned sculptor Robert Berks crafted this unique tribute to the American Buffalo of heavy, 11-gauge copper sheet which has developed a handsome, weathered patina. 80” high (plus 10” iron base) x 122” wide.

The Buffalo
In a project never realized, Berks envisioned a herd of as many as 1,000 American buffalo, made of copper, roaming the Oregon Train in Wyoming. As reported in Newsweek at the time, Berks’ copper herd was to serve as a "monument for the ages, lasting a thousand years." The project was in recognition of the great herds lost forever. This singular sculpture resulted from that effort.

This important sculptural work stands on the grounds of the Robert Berks estate on eastern Long Island, NY. The Buffalo is supported on its own stand; it is not, nor does it need to be, anchored into the ground. It is being sold F.O.B. that location. Although Guernsey’s is not a shipper, should prospective bidders wish assistance with shipping, please contact Guernsey’s, 212-794–2280.

Robert Berks, 1922 - 2011
The headline of a New York Times article about sculptor Robert Berks called him the “Capital’s Michelangelo.” Although Berks is probably best known for his heroic eight-foot-high head of President John F. Kennedy that presides over Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, there are at least eight other large public works by Berks in that city, and numerous others scattered across the United States. A number of sculptured busts by Robert Berks are part of the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery; several others are on display in the White House.

Berks’ tableau in bronze pays tribute to Mary McLeod Bethune, and is the first monument to honor a Black woman to be erected on public land in the nation’s capital. Situated on the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences, Robert Berks’ twelve-foot seated figure of Albert Einstein welcomes all who wish to learn. And Chicago’s Botanic Garden is home to Berks’ monumental work depicting Carl Linneaus.

Berks gained international recognition in 1952, when his sculptural bust of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president, was chosen as the definitive portrait of the late statesman-scientist. In the course of his career, Robert Berks created more than 300 hundred sculptural portraits of individuals in public and private life – American presidents and statesman (Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Robert Kennedy), international leaders (Golda Meir, Abba Eban, Pope Paul VI), industrialists (John Paul Getty), Civil Rights leaders (Martin Luther King, Mary McLeod Bethune), scientists (Albert Einstein, Mathide Krim), jurists (Louis Brandeis, Ramsey Clark), and personalities from the arts (Pablo Casals, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Hope, Alastair Cooke, Ernest Hemingway and Johnny Carson). Robert Berks was the first sculptor to have his work appear on the cover of Time Magazine.

Coincidental with preparations for the auction of this important sculptural work is the release of Ken Burns’ 4-hour documentary about the American Buffalo.