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When Melbourne-based Gibson’s Auctions started closing its timed online auction at 10.30am Wednesday April 8, it was the culmination of an experimental sale to combat the restrictive effects of the coronavirus pandemic that, like so many other countries, had severely affected the Australian economy.
Antique and art auction houses could trade – as long as they did it entirely on line. So managing director Jennifer Gibson decided that their first online experiment –...
Despite the constant coronavirus threat, collectors bid enthusiastically at Leski Auctions Melbourne sale of toys, trains and models on March 22 – so much so that auctioneer Charles Leski kept reminding them to keep the recommended government ordered distance from each other to minimise the risk of infection.
By the end of the sale, about 75 per cent of lots had been sold – most within the catalogue estimates.
A circa 1958 Yonezawa Atom Jet Racer (lot...
One of Australia’s top Aboriginal artists Emily Kane Kngwarreye was the top earner at Deutscher and Hackett’s Melbourne Australian Aboriginal art auction on March 18.
Her painting, Desert Winter 1994 (lot 8), sold for $317,200 including buyer’s premium followed by her other auction work, A Desert Life Cycle III 1991 (lot 9), for $170,800.
Despite the difficulties now facing the Australian auction scene with the onset of the worldwide...
Pundits were predicting an artist auction record for Del Kathryn Barton’s painting Openly Song 2014 (lot 33) – featured on the catalogue cover at Menzies first auction for 2020 on February 27 in Melbourne.
However, it was not to be as the price with buyer’s premium of $282,273 fell well short of the record of $378,200 for Of Pollen set by Sotheby’s Australia in 2018.
Barton’s painting was not the only work to not measure up to pre-auction expectations...
Conservatively estimated at $10,000-$15,000, a 19th century French Japanese-style silver, niello and enamel comport (lot 20) brought gasps from auction goers as it went under the hammer for $46,000 at Leski Auctions first decorative arts and collectables sale for the year in its Melbourne rooms on Saturday, February 22.
The two-day auction, featuring more than 1000 wide-ranging lots of which 790 sold, brought item prices ranging from several hundred to many...
While lunar soil brought back by the first unmanned robotic probe to touch down on the Moon’s surface failed to find a buyer at Leski’s December 11 Melbourne auction, memorabilia from pioneer aviation flights resulted in a great deal of spirited bidding.
The tiny sample of soil from the Russian Luna 16 September 1970 expedition (lot 261) carried a starting price of $400,000, so it was always going to be big ask to find a sufficiently wealthy interested buyer – while...
It was no surprise when John Brack’s Yellow Legs, 1969 (lot 13) painting vaulted well past its $600,000-$800,000 catalogue estimate, with spirited bidding in the room and on the telephone, to eventually be knocked down to a successful phone bidder for $1,195,600 including buyer’s premium at Deutscher and Hackett’s Melbourne November 27 art sale.
Owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the vibrant painting was part of his highly acclaimed Ballroom Dancing...
Two works by British artist and marine painter John Cleveley the Younger (1747-1786) fetched top prices well above catalogue estimates at Leski Auctions November 24 Melbourne sale.
Both, lots 429 and 430, are watercolours on paper that record scenes from Captain James Cook’s second and third voyages to the South Pacific featuring the friendly island of Moorea and HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery in the bay off the island of Huaheine – and sold for $16,000 and $13,000...
A rare 19th century Chinese jade embellished hardwood corner-leg table (lot 567) belonging to a Queensland-based private collector and a 1660 painting of Margaret Weller (lot 119) attributed to famous Dutch-English portrait artist Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) took the top two spots at Gibson’s Auction November 11 Melbourne sale.
The table sold for $18,300 including buyer’s premium and the painting for $14,640. Born Pieter van der Fraes to Dutch parents living...
A chair designed in 1913 by Weiner Werkstatte founder Joseph Hoffmann (lot 386) was the top selling item at Melbourne-based Leski Auctions October 20 sale – going under the hammer for $46,000.
Originally part of a furniture suite from the Gallia apartment belonging to wealthy Viennese landowners and entrepreneurs Moriz and Hermine Gallia who built the five-storey structure in 1910, like other well off Jewish families the couple were art patrons and supporters of new...
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