Submitted by aarAdmin on Mon, 09/30/2019 - 00:00
Although Menzies September 26 Sydney auction fell well short of the hoped for $8 million in revenue, there were several important results to satisfy art connoisseurs that investment in high profile artists is worth pursuing.
At $5,004,511 including buyers’ premiums, the sale still reached a healthy 77 per cent by volume and 69 per cent by value.
One of the leading paintings was Rick Amor’s The Waiter (lot 34) which sold for $220,909.09 against a catalogue estimate of $150,000-$200,000.
This is the second highest auction result for the artist just behind the huge The Attic Amphora, 1994 also sold by Menzies in 2016 for $227,032.
Andy Warhol’s Mick Jagger (lot 31) coloured screen print was another strong performer, bringing $73,636.36 on a $35,000-$45,000 estimate, while Albert Tucker’s Intruder and Parrots (lot 33) sold to an art consultant for $331,363.34 – more than $100,000 above its catalogue listing.
Exceptional international prints by the right artists are hard for Australian collectors to obtain in their own country so works like Banksy’s Trolleys (lot 9), number 339 from a 750 edition, are always going to attract strong bidding.
So it proved, with the work being knocked down for a hammer price of $24,000, while Ethel Spowers rare Resting Models (lot 5) Grosvenor School print, 1/50, sold for $27,000 – more than three times its catalogue estimate.
Tim Storrier is always popular and two of his works in this sale had no trouble being snapped up by collectors.
One, The Evening Line (lot 10) changed hands for $39,272.73 and the other Moonlight Plain (lot 24) for $92,045.45 on a $50,000-$70,000 estimate.
Following Howard Arkley’s recent popularity this year for several of his major works sold through leading Australian art auction houses – including Menzies which holds the record set in June of $1.25 million hammer price for Deluxe Setting, 1992 – its latest offering of the interior scene Room with Pink Chair (lot 38) was always going to attract interest.
However, this time there were no records but a low estimate result, with the painting changing hands for $429,545.45 once the buyer’s premium was taken into account.
Another well-known artist, Garry Shead, would have been pleased with the result of his 2015 work Romeo and Juliet (lot 47), which sold for a hammer price of $100,000 against a $70,000-$90,000 estimate.
