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An elaborate and flamboyantly designed Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940) lectern (lot 708) made circa 1880-1895 and exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria was the top selling item ($17,925 including buyer’s premium) at Leski Auctions two-day Melbourne sale on October 31 and November 1.
Constructed from ebonised wood, brass, ivory, pewter, vallum, cord and bone, the lectern was made in his Milan workshop, established in 1888, from where his eccentric designs found a ready market. In the...
While Melbourne’s lengthy Stage 4 lockdown response to the coronavirus pandemic has taken a severe toll on business and residents alike, online decorative arts and art auctions have performed better than expected for many auction houses.
Gibson’s Auctions Australian & International Art auction on October 25 prompted mixed reactions from buyers with 56 per cent of the 224 paintings selling – some above catalogue estimates – and many well-known artists ignored....
Despite the inability of buyers to physically attend Gibson’s Auctions Melbourne sale on Sunday October 11 due to current coronavirus lockdown restrictions, 82 per cent of the Interiors Private Collections online only offerings were snapped up with a 148 per cent return by value.
The three private collections involved belonged to antiques trade veteran Edward (Ed) Clark Antiques, diamond merchant the late Bjarne Nielsen and Antiques Selection’s Robyn Allen....
For some Melbourne-based businesses, COVID-19 is having unexpected impacts – and none more so than in the art and decorative arts auction industry.
While others have been struggling for months with harsh coronavirus lockdown restrictions, auction houses that have been able to move their sales online have often achieved surprising results.
So it was for Leski Auctions latest two-day sale on September 26 and 27 when the comprehensive eclectic collection of...
The coronavirus pandemic is making life tough for businesses in Australia and twice as hard during Victoria’s Stage 4 lockdown.
The antiques, decorative arts and collectables industry is no exception as Leski Auctions found for online its Stamps, Coins & Postal History two-day auction on August 22 and 23.
Only 59 per cent of the listed 986 lots (or 582) sold – and even the top selling item, a 5d Australia King George V head block of four stamps (lot 128),...
Items belonging to Aboriginal Australian Rules Football legend the late Graham “Polly” Farmer filled eight of the top 10 spots at Abacus Auctions Melbourne sporting and memorabilia sale on Saturday July 25.
While the top priced item was former Australian Test cricket captain Steve Waugh’s baggy green (lot 141), which changed hands for $14,376 including buyer’s premium, Polly Farmer’s personable collectables came in at second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh, ninth and...
Melbourne-based auction house Gibson’s Auctions cannot believe the result of its latest auction on Sunday July 19 – which involved the personal collection of Australian auction industry doyen Graham Joel.
Because of the current lockdown in Melbourne due to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers could only bid in one of three ways – absentee, over the phone or online – with no member of the public allowed to enter the auction rooms.
However, that...
Coronavirus lockdowns in Melbourne have been no deterrent for the establishment of new artist records at online auctions – at least that is what Deutscher and Hackett found on July 15 when Fred Williams’ Hummock in a Landscape 1967 (lot 7) sold for $2,822,726 including buyer’s premium.
The auction house was all geared up for limited buyer numbers in its rooms when, with rising community virus numbers, the second lockdown was introduced a week before the...
Australia’s art auction world might have slowed because of the global coronavirus pandemic – but it is certainly not bowed.
Menzies held its first live auction since February 2020 on Thursday July 9 in Sydney with 38 committed buyers occupying reserved seating in its Kensington rooms and the remainder lining up to bid on the phone or via the internet.
“There was more online and phone bidding than usual and results were encouraging,” Menzies assistant art...
Given the uncertainty surrounding business operations in Australia as the deadly coronavirus pandemic continues to be a thorny global problem that shows little sign of abating in the near future, Melbourne-based Gibson’s Auctions must have been pleased with the results of its 20th century design auction on June 29.
A significant proportion of Melbourne’s population has been forced into local lockdown as COVID-19 numbers and hotspots continue to grow in what...
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