posted 11-14-2025 01:50 PM               

Skybreakers: Between Heaven and Earth

10 a.m. - Dec. 12, 2025
Online auction 24589

"Skybreakers: Between Heaven and Earth" brings together more than 100 lots comprised of a curated group of more than 30 lots of space-themed artworks by visionaries such as Chesley Bonestell and Fred Freeman from the Paul G. Allen Collection, combined with more than 70 lots of rare lunar and Martian meteorites, and extraordinary mineral specimens from other collections. In total, "Skybreakers" celebrates artifacts of both the terrestrial and extraterrestrial realms, and honors humanity's enduring curiosity about the world and the cosmos—an exploration that bridges science, imagination, and the sublime.

The space art pieces in this auction, along with their publication in popular magazines, inspired a generation of explorers, scientists, and aerospace engineers. Highlights include space art from the collection of Paul G. Allen, which was well known for its holdings of Chesley Bonestell, among other famous artists of the genre.

Above: Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986) "Reentry of the Baby Space Station" signed Chesley Bonestell, lower left; oil on board, 16 x 21 in (40.6 x 53.3 cm.), Executed circa 1953. Estimate: $30,000-50,000

Bonestells in the sale include: works created for Collier magazine's Man Will Conquer Space Soon! series, such as Bonestell's Re-entry of the Baby Space Station, depicting a red-hot rocket over the San Francisco Bay (estimate: $30,000-50,000); an evocative image of a space ship before take-off, Zero Hour Minus Five, Published in Willy Ley's Conquest of Space, 1949 (estimate: $12,000-18,000); and a highly important portfolio of Chesley Bonestell's earliest astronomical drawings, the precursors of his revelatory solar system series sold to Life magazine in 1944 (estimate: $50,000-80,000).