More than a dozen paintings in Ted Turner’s collection to be auctioned

When CNN founder Ted Turner bought his first ranch in the 1980s, the artwork he’d collected up to that point didn’t quite fit. A yachtsman, among many other things, he was a fan of maritime art, but sailboats felt out of place in the mountains of Montana.

It was meant to be when he found the works of 19th century artists Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran, whose landscape paintings depicted the sweeping vistas, mountains and waters of the American West — all places he wanted to protect and preserve. Turner started buying as many of their works as he could, adorning not just his ranches but as many of his properties as he could with them, his son Teddy Turner said.

“When he discovered these artists, he went kind of nuts,” Turner said. “Dad didn’t do anything halfway, right?”

These works will soon leave Turner’s private collection as his family brings them to auction through Christie’s New York. On Jan. 20, a group of about 20 paintings will be offered, with the proceeds benefiting his foundation dedicated to environmental protection causes.

The Bierstadt works include1864’s “Yosemite Valley,” which previously sat above the mantle at Turner’s 113,613-acre Flying D Ranch in Montana. Another is Bierstadt’s “Buffalo at Sunset.” The Moran lot includes “The Grand Canyon-Hance Trail” and “The Inner Gorge, Grand Canyon.”

It’s tough to part with the collection, Turner said, but it’s fulfilling his father’s vision of protecting what he thought was the country’s greatest asset: its land.

“They’re going to people who will love them and cherish them as we did,” he said. “(The proceeds) will help make the world a better place.”

The Atlanta media mogul, who died at age 87 in May after a long illness, had a history of using his fortune to support his favorite causes. A lover of nature and the wilderness, he amassed more than 2 million acres of spreads and ranches in North America and Argentina, and eventually became the biggest bison rancher in the world, with a herd of 45,000.

Bierstadt and Moran, who were part of a group of artists called the Hudson River School, were among the preeminent painters of the American West landscape. Their work inspired generations of conservationists, including President Teddy Roosevelt.

Although the paintings he acquired were in his residences, Turner didn’t shy away from displaying them publicly. More than 25 years ago, 16 works were shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta as part of a collection titled “Visions of the Frontier: American Landscapes from the Collection of Ted Turner.” At the time, he said it extended his interest in public education on preserving the landscape.