# Robert Indiana artist context and auction value notes Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/robert-indiana/ Profile generated: 2026-04-29T01:45:00.000Z Quality: high confidence, strong sources ## Artist identity - Birth date: 1928-09-13 - Death date: 2018-05-19 - Nationality: American - Movements: Pop Art, Hard-edge painting - Common media: Oil and acrylic painting on canvas, Screenprints and lithographs, Cor-ten steel and aluminum sculpture, Mixed-media assemblage ## About Robert Indiana Robert Indiana (born Robert Clark, 1928–2018) was an American painter and sculptor centrally associated with the Pop Art movement. Born in New Castle, Indiana, he studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute before settling in New York City in 1954. On Coenties Slip in lower Manhattan, he joined a community of artists including Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, and James Rosenquist, whose shared industrial-loft environment helped shape his early hard-edge style. Indiana's work is defined by bold color, stenciled text, and numerals—most famously his LOVE image, which appeared as a painting, sculpture, and United States postage stamp and became one of the most widely recognized artworks of the twentieth century. Beyond LOVE, his practice spanned mixed-media assemblages, large-scale Cor-ten steel sculptures, screenprints, and career-spanning word and number series held by major museums worldwide. ## Common works and media Indiana is commonly encountered in appraisal and auction contexts across oil and acrylic paintings on canvas featuring hard-edge geometric text and numeral compositions; screenprints and lithographs issued in signed and numbered editions; large-scale Cor-ten steel and aluminum sculptures including LOVE and HOPE variants; mixed-media assemblages incorporating found materials; posters and exhibition prints. Recurring subjects include single words such as LOVE, HOPE, EAT, DIE, HUG, and ERR; numerical series including ONE through ZERO; and American highway and roadside iconography drawn from his Midwestern upbringing. ## Market and appraisal context Robert Indiana's auction market is deep and liquid, with 4,255 recorded lots and 2,406 priced results spanning December 2000 through April 2026. The price distribution is extremely wide—from $20 for unsigned or poster material to $4,114,500 for major paintings or sculptures—reflecting the vast range of media, editions, and scales in his oeuvre. The interquartile range ($350–$4,800) and median ($1,100) indicate that most transactions involve prints and small editions, while the long upper tail is driven by canonical 1960s paintings and monumental Cor-ten steel sculptures. Ten or more auction houses appear regularly, including Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, and Bonhams alongside specialist houses such as RoGallery, DUMBO Auctions, and Setdart, demonstrating sustained global demand across market tiers. Recent 12-month volume (297 lots) is materially below the prior 12-month period (501 lots), which may indicate softening, reduced consignment supply, or seasonal variation; a single year's decline does not establish a trend but warrants monitoring. ## Auction-house-backed market evidence Robert Indiana's auction market is deep and liquid, with 4,255 recorded lots and 2,406 priced results spanning December 2000 through April 2026. The price distribution is extremely wide—from $20 for unsigned or poster material to $4,114,500 for major paintings or sculptures—reflecting the vast range of media, editions, and scales in his oeuvre. The interquartile range ($350–$4,800) and median ($1,100) indicate that most transactions involve prints and small editions, while the long upper tail is driven by canonical 1960s paintings and monumental Cor-ten steel sculptures. Ten or more auction houses appear regularly, including Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, and Bonhams alongside specialist houses such as RoGallery, DUMBO Auctions, and Setdart, demonstrating sustained global demand across market tiers. Recent 12-month volume (297 lots) is materially below the prior 12-month period (501 lots), which may indicate softening, reduced consignment supply, or seasonal variation; a single year's decline does not establish a trend but warrants monitoring. ### Appraisal notes Appraisily would combine these auction records with physical examination details—photographs documenting medium, dimensions, signature and inscription, surface condition, and provenance paperwork—to identify the closest comparable lots. For prints and multiples, edition size, edition number, and publisher stamp or blind stamp are essential discriminators because the LOVE image alone spans hundreds of editions across decades. For sculptures, fabrication date, foundry or publisher marks, and material (painted polystone versus Cor-ten steel versus aluminum) can shift value by orders of magnitude. The 24 most recent lots show that poster and unsigned material can trade below $100, while signed screenprints from mature series such as The American Dream or The Berlin Series command $1,400–$9,000, underscoring why attribution precision is critical before selecting comparables. ### Valuation factors - Medium and scale: large canvases and monumental Cor-ten steel sculptures command significant premiums over works on paper, prints, and polystone multiples - Date of execution: 1960s Pop Art–period works are generally the most sought after and command the highest prices - Edition size and number: for prints and multiples, small editions and low edition numbers carry premiums; the LOVE image alone exists in hundreds of editions across decades - Provenance and exhibition history: museum, estate, or notable-collection provenance materially increases value - Condition: hard-edge color-field works require excellent surface integrity; scratching, fading, or inpainting disproportionately affects value - Authenticity documentation: certificates of authenticity from the publisher or estate are important for late-career and posthumous editions - Signature and inscription: signed works trade at premiums over unsigned or apparently unsigned examples (recent comparable: an unsigned Four Fours screenprint realized $80 versus signed Berlin Series silkscreens at $1,400–$1,600 in the same month) - Fabrication date versus creation date: late-career and posthumous casts or editions may differ significantly in market value from authenticated 1960s–1970s originals ### Collector notes ### Market caveats - The LOVE image exists in a very wide range of media, editions, scales, and fabrication dates, making careful attribution essential for appraisal. - Poster editions and unauthorized reproductions circulate widely; edition verification against publisher records is important. - Late-career works and posthumous casts may differ significantly in market value from authenticated 1960s–1970s originals. - Recent 12-month lot volume (297) is approximately 41% lower than the prior 12-month period (501); this may reflect market softening, reduced consignment supply, or seasonal variation and does not alone establish a price trend. - Auction-record prices include buyer's premiums in some cases and not others depending on the source; direct price comparisons should account for this. - The max recorded price ($4,114,500) represents an extreme outlier above the 75th percentile ($4,800); most transactions fall well below this level. - Currency mix in recent lots includes USD, EUR, and GBP; cross-currency comparisons should account for exchange rates at the time of sale. ### Market evidence sources - undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/robert-indiana/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-robert-indiana-1928-2018-tufted-wool-love-rug-35-c-348774bdc6 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-robert-indiana-united-states-1928-2018-love-red-gold-2018-painted-polystone-exemplar-214-500-enclosed-certificate-of-authenticity-from-the-publisher-and-original-box-of-the-work-publisher-editions-studio-98-c-1ffdd8bbd2 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-robert-indiana-constance-fletcher-lithograph-190a-c-e3abe6b193 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-robert-indiana-the-american-dream-no-2-130-c-0cee8f5ee0 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-robert-indiana-indiana-usa-1928-maine-usa-2018-american-love-2018-painted-polystone-edition-of-500-attached-certificate-of-authenticity-and-original-box-editions-studio-2018-185-c-fd034ef792 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-robert-indiana-the-berlin-series-silkscreen-99-c-6b240b8637 ## Appraisily data basis Appraisily artist pages combine structured artist-identity research from museum, library-authority, and scholarly sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. No single source determines the profile; information is cross-referenced across independent authorities. ## Sources - Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50082289 - The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/2812 - Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/robert-indiana-2382 - RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/41024 - VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/17498463/ - Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q169281 - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Indiana