Aboriginal Art remains strong in the auction market

With the art auction market feeling the pinch currently, it was great to see that Aboriginal Art is still as popular as ever!

The below article is quite long and mainly deals with recent auctions involving non indigenous Australian Art but the bold part shows that despite the lull in the current auction market, Aboriginal Art sales remain strong, to the point that records have been broken at recent auctions.

This is great news for the industry and shows that the popularity of Aboriginal Art is able to transcend the current art market vulnerabilities.

Sombre times as art buyers sit on their hands

Peter Fish
March 22, 2008

There were long faces and numerous unsold lots at Deutscher-Menzies's big Sydney art auction on Tuesday. Even the auctioneers themselves didn't bother trying to put a positive spin on the sale, for a change.

You won't see a lot of gloating and chest-beating from DM's bitter auction rivals Sotheby's, Deutscher and Hackett, and Bonhams & Goodman, which have big sales coming up next month and a trail of anxious vendors with high expectations.

DM said the ratio of lots sold on the important first night of the two-night auction was down as much as 66 per cent, compared with previously claimed levels of about 75-85 per cent, saying many buyers seemed to be sitting on their hands. It figures the sale raised $8.3 million, excluding any after sales. That sold ratio means one-third of the 141 lots on offer - more than 46 paintings and sculptures - will go back to disappointed vendors.

The firm's national head of art, Tim Abdullah, said no one at DM was expecting this year to rival last year's boom, but even with lowered expectations the results were disappointing. ArtSmart was unable to attend, being caught up at the office till late, but there was plenty of anecdotal evidence that the mood at DM's Kensington premises was sombre, with bidding sporadic at best.

The auctioneer is claiming an artist record for its star lot, Russell Drysdale's Country Child at $1.68 million, but some observers point out the hammer price for this work, $1.4 million, was right on the button of the estimated range, given in the catalogue as $1.4 million to $1.8 million. Before the sale DM was whipping up expectations of $2 million plus. It's a worthy work, but is regarded as something of an old chestnut since it's been offered over and again in the saleroom - at least twice at DM itself in the past 10 years.

One of few standout prices was the modernistic rowing study The Eight, just 31 centimetres by 22 centimetres, by the British linocut artist Cyril Power. It paddled up a storm with a price of $44,000 compared with a $24,000 to $30,000 estimate, amid bidding from Britain, the US and Canada. Power was a member of London's Grosvenor school.

Sid Nolan's Kelly in the Landscape - unmasked in this column last week as the retitled Ned Kelly And Two Figures In The Bush, which sold for $306,200 at Christie's in 2005 - went for $660,000. That's more than double the 2005 price but still below expectations.
Important works by Salvador Dali and Rosalie Gascoigne were among the unsolds.

Indeed the auctioneer itself admits most of the major works were knocked down at the lower estimates. Did they all really find new homes or will some be discreetly reoffered around the trade in coming weeks, as has happened after DM sales before?

In the following night's sale, a somewhat more downmarket offering under the banner of DM's stablemate Lawson-Menzies, there was a considerably improved sold ratio of 84 per cent, and a number of records claimed for Aboriginal art. In the present squeeze on financial and credit markets - which almost certainly means few will be buying pictures with borrowed money - the art auction market is rapidly developing the jitters.

There are reports that Sotheby's and Deutscher and Hackett have been approaching dealers, showing off their wares and trying drum up interest in their upcoming sales. All around town there is the sound of vendor expectations being massaged downwards and estimates being cut to the bone. And it's unlikely the art gallery business will escape the pinch, despite the unseemly rush for Arthur Boyd's signature Shoalhaven River studies we reported last week.

Even the mercurial Rodney Menzies, who owns and runs Deutscher-Menzies and its stablemate Lawson-Menzies, was apparently in a dour mood on Tuesday, describing the sale as a tough day at the office.

Running a specialist art auction division with teams of well-paid specialists and high insurance and other overheads is an expensive business. There are many mouths to feed, as one insider said this week. Tough times could be ahead, particularly for those solely dependent on the flighty Australian paintings market - like the relative new boys on the block Deutscher and Hackett, run by the former DM men Chris Deutscher and Damien Hackett.
In such conditions it is handy to have a second string to the bow. Sotheby's and Bonhams & Goodman may be glad they retained a foothold in the less hype-driven decorative art and Australiana market, and in the case of B&G cars and collectables.

Rod Menzies might even discover his inner Annandale - perhaps he'll turn to his neglected Lawsons general auction business, run out of a seedy warehouse, as a beacon of steady saleroom cash flow.

Asian daggers, wavy or straight

Fanciers of the kris, the wavy or straight-edged blade that was once a symbol of pre-Islamic manliness and rank throughout much of Indonesia and Malaysia, will find much to admire on the website of Hermann Historica in Munich. The firm has catalogued a huge sale of historic weaponry and armour on April 9 and 10 including more than 60 kris, plus many other edged weapons from the East. Most of the kris on offer date from the early 20th century century, including a large number of Balinese examples. Many of the blades have gold details, said to indicate a royal or aristocratic provenance. Many have interesting pamor, the patterning that results after the kris maker folds in different metals as part of forging the blade, as well as carved hilts in ivory, horn or rare woods.

Among them is an "executioner" kris, so-called for its long, straight blade that was used to penetrate the unfortunate victim's heart from above, entering through the shoulder. The catalogue is at www.hermann-historica.com.

H marks Lachlan's dump

Noble Numismatics is offering another of its vast auctions of coins, notes, medals and other numismatic material in 16 sessions starting on April 8 and running through to the following Friday in Sydney. A highlight is the coin collection of the former Sydney taxi repairman John Wilson, which occupies a catalogue of its own. Wilson is known for seeking out coins in the most pristine state. As the catalogue says, he put quality first and price second. Most of the coins are the finest known examples of their type - which means they are sure to attract fancy prices. Among the many sharp and shiny specimens on offer, perhaps the least prepossessing is Wilson's "dump", the little coin that Governor Lachlan Macquarie punched out of his stock of Spanish dollars to provide distinctive coinage for the struggling colony.

The dump is marked on the front with a crown and the wording New South Wales, and the date, 1813. The outer "doughnut" that remained after Macquarie's moneyer punched out its centre was of course the legendary holey dollar or five shilling piece.

By striking coins worth six shillings and threepence from the dollar, which was worth five shillings, the canny Macquarie managed to add considerable value for his colonial treasury. The Wilson dump still shows traces of the host coin beneath the overstruck design, and also just visible on the reverse is the initial H, for the moneyer Macquarie used, the convict known only as Henshall.

Despite looking a bit scratched compared with its smart neighbours in the catalogue, the dump is attractive and relatively well preserved - hence the beefy estimate of $50,000. Whether it will get anywhere near the $99,025 one fetched last year remains to be seen.

The main sale includes four other examples with estimates from $4000. There are also some later replicas - the inclusion of which is controversial in a numismatic world where it's not unknown for copies to be resold to unwitting buyers as originals.

Among the items are a number of Tsarist-era Russian icons and other items including a collection of 19th and early 20th century silver cigarette cases. These are decorated with embossing, engraving, niello-work (a process of inlaying black pigment) or coloured enamels. Designs include prominent buildings, hunting scenes and animals.

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