'A crown jewel for Scottsdale'

Oct. 17—Like a prized cattle roundup, Western artwork collected by Eddie Basha over the years is heading "back to the ranch."

Deep in the heart of Chandler, Eddie Basha started "rounding up" art as he expanded what became a grocery store mini-empire.

An extraordinary donation is sending much of Basha's art right back to where he started his art-collecting career.

As journalist and author Janna Bommersbach noted, Eddie Basha made his first art purchase in Scottsdale — on credit.

"In the early 1970s, as Eddie was just starting to collect, he bought his first John Clymer — a $9,000 painting of a buffalo — from the O'Brien Art Gallery in Scottsdale," Bommersbach recalled.

"Bill O'Brien was the owner. The story is Eddie needed credit to afford the painting and Clymer agreed ...Then, Eddie went to Prescott and bought a Joe Beeler."

Indeed, the soon-to-close Bashas' Gallery is filled with native American and Western art — including works by Beeler, Charlie Dye and John Hampton, who called themselves "The Cowboy Artists of America."

The closing in Chandler is sending many prized pieces to Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West.

Jody Beeler, son of Joe, drove down from Sedona for the Oct. 9 donation ceremony in Chandler.

"They were brothers — Dad and Eddie considered each other brothers," Beeler reflected. "It was a fast friendship from when Eddie was first collecting Western art back in 1971."

After Eddie Basha bought a Joe Beeler painting, "The friendship really took off," Jody Beeler said. "It became a lifetime friendship until my dad died in 2006."

What does Jody think of his father's art heading to Scottsdale?

"Perfect," he said. "It's just perfect."

He marveled at the Basha donation — which quickly follows a Louis Sands IV $12 million funding of a Western Spirit expansion, which will create a new gallery to house the Basha pieces.

"It's funny how things fall together sometimes," Jody Beeler said.

The Sedona resident and icon's son said he can't wait to see the expanded museum.

"That's going to be the crown jewel for Scottsdale," Jody Beeler said.