Submitted by aarAdmin on Wed, 12/14/2022 - 00:00
When auction buyers know a painting’s provenance, it invariably adds to its sale value.
And so it proved for popular Sydney collectors Colin and Elizabeth Laverty’s collection of Aboriginal and contemporary art, sold by Deutscher and Hackett on December 13 in Melbourne, which at $421,455 including buyers’ premiums was a 152 per cent by value and 98 per cent by volume return for the 47 paintings and sculptures involved.
Duetscher and Hackett this year had already raised the bar for Australian art auction houses with its record $52.3 million total sales for 2022. The additional $421,455 just made that figure a little more challenging for its competitors.
Top of the list was Gwynn Hanssen Pigott’s (1935-2013) Bronze Still Life, 1998, (lot 12) which changed hands for $55,228 (including buyer’s premium) – more than three times its upper catalogue estimate.
Russian-born Australian artist Domescu’s Paroi, 2007 (lot 7) was a strong performer at $29,455 (more than twice the lower estimate), while Aboriginal artist Mirdidingkinggathi Juwarnda Sally Gobori’s Rockcod Story Place, 2006 (lot 28) also more than doubled its estimate at $27,000 – the same price as that achieved for Eubena Nampatjin’s Untitled, 1992 (lot 37) – six times its upper catalogue estimate.
Richard Larter’s (1929-2014) The Tinkling Eye of K. Marx No. 2, 1966 (lot 8) was another painting to be hotly contested – eventually going under the hammer at $20,000 ($24,546 including BP).
His Time, Purpose and Formalism Nos 1, 2 and 3: The Battle for the Pagodas, 1966 (lot 17) was less spectacular but still impressive at $17,182.
Lot 21 – Ildiko Kovacs’s Untitled, 1999 – was another top 10 performer at $14,727, and Noel McKenna’s Farm Scene, 2014 a great return at $12,273, the same as that paid for Robert Klippel’s (1920-2001) bronze statue entitled Opus 626, 1984.
